Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was a leftover of something sinister in the air. It was the middle of August and Will was baking to death in the dry heat, but he could still feel the cold biting at his heels, sticking to him like a shadow. He rubbed at the back of his neck, agitated. Though he didn’t feel anything besides the slickness of his sweat collecting just underneath his hairline. The MindFlayer was gone, he knew that. It just seemed like his body was having a harder time adjusting. He still jumped at dark corners and stared suspiciously at swaying trees. It was like someone had taken control over his nervous system, winding him up and watching him shake and rattle like some sort of ballerina doll.

He hiked his backpack further up his shoulders and crossed the street to get to his house. As he walked he observed the cracks in the road, some zig zagging off in their own direction, others forming a crooked spider web across the dark tar. If he squinted he could see the heat rising off of the ground. He kicked at a rock and sent it flying into the ditch, then stepped onto the sidewalk.

The door opened before his hand ever made contact with the doorknob. He peered inside and made eye contact with El, who was standing with her arms folded, looking down at him menacingly. “Late,” she said, disapprovingly. “It is three hundred and forty seven.”

Will slid past her and bumped the door closed with his hip. He dropped his backpack onto the rug. “You mean three forty seven.”

She shrugged her shoulders, unbothered. She was standing in the middle of the entryway and a sunbeam was shining over the top of her, filtering in through the blinds in the kitchen window. She was dressed in one of his flannels, a light yellow one with faded grey stripes. She had a black tank top underneath it, tucked into light blue jeans. Her hair was down to her collarbones now, curling at the end in little ringlets. Her feet were even covered in bright pink socks, stopping just below her knees. She seemed like an ordinary teenage girl, except for the dark depths of her eyes and the serious lines on her face from frowning.

He knew he had the same lines around his face. Though he used to have them from smiling.

“How was school?” She asked him, tilting her head. She dug her toes into the floor.

Will bit the inside of his cheek, unsure how to respond. Hopper had been presumed dead for two weeks after the events at Starcourt until Murray had pestered Doctor Owens enough that he’d convinced him to send men down to find the body, which was when they had found Hopper, barely conscious, lying on the floor of what had once been Scoops Ahoy. Since then, El hadn’t left his side, only coming home from the hospital to shower and sleep. His mom had made the unanimous decision to keep her from school at least one more year. She had originally told El that it was because she needed time to grieve, but Will knew that the real reason was because his mom was afraid of all the things that could potentially go wrong out in the open.

El had agreed at first, too relieved that Hopper was alive to care. But Will could tell that it was beginning to eat at her now. Not being allowed to be normal. Having to watch all her friends grow and learn without her.

“It was fine,” Will answered. He hesitated. He couldn’t stand to see the downcast look on her face. So he smiled and nudged his arm into hers, projecting some cheerfulness into his voice. “Mike and Max kept asking about you. They act like they haven’t seen you in years instead of just three days.”

El blushed, pleased. She patted the walkie-talkie stuffed in her pocket and Will tried not to visibly cringe. She had left a channel open and he could hear the static noise blasting from it. The antenna was starting to bend at an odd angle from how she had thrown it onto her bed and accidentally sat on it. “Mike said he would see me on Thursday,” she informed him. “He is taking me on a date.”

Will wrapped his arms around himself, protecting his organs from an invisible blow that almost knocked him off of his feet. He swallowed noisily and offered her an encouraging nod. “That’s great, El.”

Noticing the natural end to their conversation, she gestured for him to follow her into the kitchen and he padded through the house behind her. When he walked over the threshold he was bombarded by the smell of smoke, thick and heady. He wrinkled his nose and watched as his mom paced back and forth in front of the oven, cigarette stuck firmly in between her middle and index fingers.

“Mom?” Will questioned.

She spun around and relief instantly overtook her features. She made her way over to him and wrapped him up in a hug. He gently patted her on the back and then pulled away, concerned.

“Is everything okay?” He asked.

She let out a deep breath and then fixed him with a reproachful stare. She placed her hands on her hips. “You’re late.”

“So I’ve heard,” Will said slowly. “I’m sorry, am I missing something? Were we supposed to go somewhere today?”

While his mom was distracted, El wandered over to the fridge and sneakily began to pull out a box of Eggos. She snatched two from the packaging and quietly grabbed the bottle of whipped cream, letting the door fall shut. She caught Will’s eye and held up a finger to her lips.

His mom smoothed her hands down his shoulders. She had a pinched look on her face and her lips were thin and chapped, bloodless from where she’d been biting down on them. It was a familiar sight but worrying nonetheless.

“You really haven’t heard anything?” His mom inquired.

Will’s pulse started to kick up. “About what?”

“Missing,” El stated. She sounded solemn, pausing from where she’d been dropping her Eggos into the toaster. “Taken. Hop said she was taken.”

His stomach lurched. “Who?”

His mom shook her head. “It was on the news earlier. I’ve never met any of them but apparently they live in Loch Nora, around the Harrington’s neighborhood.” She let out a deep breath. “It was a little girl. About the same age as you were when you…” she waved a hand, as if pushing the memories away. “It’s been about forty eight hours now. They reported it last night.”

He swallowed. “Do they know who took her?”

El’s nose twitched. She seemed irritated by the topic. “No. They are too slow. Unable.”

His mom pinched the bridge of her nose. “El—“

“I am able,” El ground out. “But Hop said not to look.”

“You’re still healing,” his mom said. “You don’t know what will happen to you if you go back there. It’s dangerous, honey.” El opened her mouth to defend herself but his mom steamrolled right over her. “Not just for you. For everyone.” She paused. “I don’t know how your powers work, none of us do. But you know your limits and I think it’s safe to say that for now, this might be one.”

Will shifted his weight. They were talking in circles around the real issue. It had been weeks and El still couldn’t even manage to crush a can of soda. There was no way she’d be strong enough to go into the void and search for a missing kid.

Selfishly, Will was grateful that nothing else had happened. A lost kid could be found, he knew that better than most. But a gate to another world could not be as easily closed. Nor could a monster be destroyed. At least this was something normal, something the police department could handle and control.

Will rocked back and forth on his heels. Standing in the midst of the silent standoff was making his skin crawl. Finally he prompted, “Mom?”

She rubbed at her arms, snagging one of her rings against the fabric of her shirt. “It’s just a scary time right now, alright? And with everything that’s been going on, I guess I’m just worried.” She paused. “Especially when you didn’t come home today on time. I just thought…” she trailed off. She didn’t have to finish the sentence. Will was quite aware of what she had thought.

He tapped his fingers against his thighs, drumming them to a tune he’d heard on the radio in the car that morning, heading to school in the passenger seat with Jonathan. He was at a loss for words; he didn’t know how to reassure his mom that nothing would happen to him, and he didn’t think that she would even believe him if he did. He just settled for a quick dip of his head, showing that he understood what she was communicating to him.

“I’ll walk home with Dustin next time,” Will eventually said, pretending not to see the way her shoulders sagged. “He’s been wanting to show me the new X-Men comic anyway.”

Argument forgotten, El shoved an entire Eggo into her mouth. It didn’t seem like it was all the way thawed. “Max said that Wonder Woman was better,” she tilted her head to the side. “She said you guys like nerd shit.”

“Hey!” His mom reprimanded. “Don’t say that.”

El scowled. “Will says it.”

Will rolled his eyes. “Everyone says it.”

His mom whirled around to face him, eyebrows raised. “If everyone jumped off a cliff—“

“Mike jumped off a cliff once,” El pointed out helpfully. Her eyes were glazed over like she was reminiscing about something.

Will didn’t remember that. “Sorry, what?”

El nodded to herself and then tipped her chin up and looked at his mom through her eyelashes. She had an air of confidence around her, like whatever she said was bound to be noble and important. “Don’t worry, Joyce,” she began. “If Will jumped off a cliff, I would be there to save him.”

His mom smiled and ruffled her hair. “I know you would, kiddo.” Behind them, the Eggos popped up out of the toaster and his mom’s expression turned serious. “We’ve talked about this, Eleven.”

Will was still hung up on the Mike jumping off of a cliff thing. He thought that everyone moved past that one rather quickly. “Wait,” he started. “Let’s rewind here for a second. Mike did what?”

***

The Demogorgon had found him. Will could hear the footsteps from a mile away, big and heavy thuds, hitting the ground in time with his heartbeat. He crouched down against the shed, inching his way alongside it. It was dark out and he couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of him. He had gotten turned around at some point and now he couldn’t remember what direction his house was in.

His rifle was laying somewhere in the grass, chamber full and loaded, safety still on. If he turned on his flashlight he would be able to locate it, but he knew that he wasn’t fast enough to reach it in time. Even if he did, it wouldn’t do any good. Last time he hadn’t even gotten a chance to fire at it. He had been here one second and then gone the next.

The Demogorgon let out a wild chattering noise and all the hair on Will’s body began to stand on end. He ignored the throbbing sensation in the back of his neck and creeped forward, hyper aware of his breathing. He rounded the corner and pressed his back against the wall, covering the vulnerable parts of his body. Then he waited, counting in his head like he was awaiting the last fleeting seconds of the ticking bomb.

When the Demogorgon roared and launched itself at something in the distance, Will flung the shed door open and locked himself inside of it. He knew it was irrational, but he felt momentarily safe with a block of concrete between him and the monster. Exhausted, he braced his head against the wall and tried to ride through the wave of tremors his body was producing. But he couldn’t seem to get his knees to unlock. His legs were shaking, tensed. As if he was a sprinter, getting ready to come out of his starts the instant the gun sounded.

Will shook his head and forced himself to turn around. He half expected to come face to face with the Demogorgon, just like he had all those years ago. But instead it was something much, much worse. Highlighted by the moonlight coming in through the window, was a corpse, hanging by a thread from the ceiling. It was obviously old, skin grey and sallow, eyes drooping out of their sockets. There were flies buzzing around it and he could see movement underneath the skin, maggots rummaging around in the tissue. But the smell was the worst part. It was indescribable. Vile. Like all the rot in the world had combined and festered inside one empty vessel.

Will gagged, covering his mouth and nose desperately. Without looking away from it, he tugged at the doorknob, twisting harder when it wouldn’t budge. Vomit rose up his throat and he swallowed it back down, ignoring the way it burned.

He stumbled further away from the corpse and backed into a table, knocking tools off of it and onto his feet. In his new position, he could see the body more clearly. That’s when he noticed the big gaping wound in its stomach. Unlike the rest of the body, the wound was fresh, with blood and gore gushing out of it. There was so much red that Will felt dizzy, untethered. Although he couldn’t pull his eyes away from it. The sight should’ve been impossible. A corpse that old couldn’t have had any blood left. Especially not blood that flowed freely, stinking of something metal and tangy.

Will scooted around the body, giving it a wide berth. He didn’t know where he was going, but he needed to get out and far, far away.

“Don’t you recognize me, Will?” A voice asked, suddenly. It was familiar, though tainted. Deeper than it had been in real life. It had a bur to it, a reverb. Where it should have sounded warm and comforting instead it was cold and angry. Evil.

Will felt sick with unease, chilled down to the bone. The air was thick around him and he was filled with a deep seated sense of wrongness. His stomach was working itself into knots and that was familiar too. He’d felt it sitting at the Wheeler’s house when they’d had a marathon of horror movies. It was the feeling of something old and twisted and unmentionable. The dread inside him rose up and twined around his heart, unforgiving.

“Go away,” he whispered.

But it wouldn’t. It never did.

“Don’t you remember what you did to me?” The voice asked again. It was closer than last time, though Will hadn’t heard him move. “Look at me and see for yourself what I’ve become.”

Will stared ahead, steadfastly. And then a pale grey hand landed down on his shoulder, fingernails covered in yellow mold digging into the fabric of his sleeve and then breaking skin. He screamed and jerked away, only to be caught and reeled backwards. His back met the front of the corpse and the gore immediately began to seep into his clothing. He struggled and thrashed but the grip only tightened, slowly spinning him around.

He sobbed when he met eyes with the grinning corpse. His teeth were cracked and green, unnaturally sharp and solid. Nothing at all like the soothing smile that had been flashed his way.

“Will,” Bob greeted.

And then before his eyes he melted down into a smaller figure, someone skinnier and healthier, with dark hair and kind eyes, a person Will would know blind and deaf and half dead. Mike Wheeler stared back at him, mouth pulled back into a disgusted snarl. Unlike the real thing, his eyes were flat, lifeless. He had contempt radiating off of him and it was hitting Will in the face, full force.

“Can’t you see what you did to them?” Mike demanded. He gestured at the space where Bob had just occupied. “Can’t you see what you’re doing to us?”

“No,” Will pleaded. He had tears running down his cheeks, trailing down his neck and sticking in his mouth, salty and wet. He held up his hands and raised them towards his face, hiding, cowering.

Mike shuddered. “You’ve killed so many people, Will. There’s so much blood on your hands that you’re practically swimming in it.” He took a step towards him, glowering down and looming over his head. “And you’re not going to stop. Not until the entire town is destroyed, gutters overflowing with red.” He jabbed a finger into Will’s chest. “Eventually you’re even going to kill me. Aren’t you?”

Will cringed, snot running down his chin. “Stop it!”

“I know what you are, Will Byers!” Mike thundered. He basically spit the words at him. “You’re a monster. A ruthless killer of the worst kind. One that pretends to love and care and be our friend, our son. But we know the truth now.”

“Shut up!” Will demanded. His fingernails were digging into his palms, making vivid little crescent moons in the sensitive skin of his hands. “You’re wrong! I didn’t want any of this! I didn’t kill anybody!”

Mike wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. It looked disingenuous, like he was playing a part. “We never should’ve saved you. We should’ve left you in there to rot. Just like you’ve left them. Just like you’ll leave us.”

Will couldn’t breathe. He dug the heels of his hands into his eyes and pressed until he saw little bursts of light. This couldn’t be real. It just couldn’t be.

Mike shook his head, somber. “I never should’ve asked you to be my friend that day, Will.” He looked him straight in the eyes, unwavering. “It was the worst thing I’d ever done.”

Will sat straight up in bed and gasped. He patted around his sheets and took a hold of his walkie-talkie, clutching at it with sweaty hands. His thumb hovered over the button, finger spasming as he fought the urge to press down on it.

Eventually he managed to calm himself down and he dropped the walkie-talkie down onto his nightstand. He glanced around his room and took in every shadow and every corner. He sniffled and reached up to wipe his nose with his sleeve, surprised when it came away damp. He patted at his face and tried to dry off the tear tracks on his cheeks.

He didn’t go back to sleep for a long time after. The smell of Bob’s decaying body stuck in his nostrils. Though he knew that at least that would fade. The guilt would never go away.

***

“Are you out of your mind?” Dustin screeched. He was gesturing at Lucas with a soggy french fry. A look of righteous fury on his face. “Since when do you care about high school sports?”

Lucas rolled his eyes, setting his chocolate milk down on his tray angrily. “The entire student body cares about high school sports, Dustin. Am I so wrong for wanting to be a part of that?”

“Yes!” Dustin exclaimed, sharing a glance with Mike. “You really want to hang out with those jackasses? They don’t even know you exist.”

Lucas snatched the fry from out of his hand and plopped it into his mouth. “Exactly. That’s the point. Maybe I don’t want to be some nameless face in the yearbook anymore.” He dropped his gaze and sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Come on, dude. Aren’t you tired of being ignored?”

Will was standing just to the left of the table, watching their exchange with bemusement. He’d been hovering there for a few seconds, hesitant to sit down and get pulled into the conversation. Somewhat bitterly, he thought that none of them really knew what it was like to be ignored. As if he was summoned by that train of thought, Mike’s head swerved and his eyes fell on Will.

“Hey!” Mike said, brightly. He began to shove his stuff off of the seat next to him, letting it fall to the floor. When he realized that Will hadn’t moved, he cocked his head to the side and frowned. “What are you still doing over there? Come sit down.”

Will kicked at the ground, uselessly. He felt like there was a trail of fire ants crawling up his spine every time he heard Mike speak. His voice had played on repeat inside Will’s head last night, vicious and hurt. Just when he’d been close to drifting off, the image of Mike standing in his shed had come rushing back, and he’d have to violently curb his body’s reaction to it. He had fallen asleep in algebra and then spent the last fifteen minutes of that class in the bathroom throwing up, though eventually all that had been left was acid reflux. The thought of being that close to Mike was enough to make his stomach lurch unhappily.

He ground his teeth and dropped into the seat next to Lucas, ignoring the startled look he’d received from Dustin. Dutifully, he started picking at his mashed potatoes, trying his best not to compare them to the color of Bob’s mangled skin. He scooped a piece onto his fork and brought it into his mouth. He bit down onto a huge chunk and the texture made him gag. All he could think about was the organs falling out of Bob’s stomach, ribs splintered and cracked.

He felt someone’s eyes on him and looked up, unsurprised to see Mike doing all he could to burn a hole through his head. Will could tell that he was confused, maybe even a little stung by the rejection. His hand was still lingering on the chair next to him, forlorn. In the dim blue lighting of the cafeteria, he seemed more vulnerable than usual. His expression was blown wide open, something that Will hadn’t seen since before last summer.

“What’s wrong?” Mike asked, finally.

Will hunched his shoulders. “What do you mean?”

Lucas reached over and poked at his tray. “You’re not eating, dude. I think I’ve seen you take one bite since you sat down.” He observed the mashed potatoes with a crinkled nose. Then he swiped the hamburger off of his own plate and held it out to Will, somewhat dramatically. “My good sir, allow me the honor of—“

Dustin rolled his eyes. “How you think you’re going to make the basketball team is beyond me.” He sniffed and adjusted his hat, pulling it down firmly over his head. “You’re like a certified nerd. What would you even talk to anybody about? I bet you don’t even have a single thing in common. I mean—“

Will pushed away the hamburger. He didn’t think he could stomach the meat. “It’s alright, Lucas. I’m just not hungry. El was over this morning, so mom made a big breakfast.”

“Right,” Mike said, igdinant. He folded his arms. “So if that’s all and there’s absolutely nothing wrong then why haven’t you looked at me?”

Dustin pinched the bridge of his nose. “That’s what you’re worried about right now?” He exhaled noisily. “Who cares if Will isn’t looking at you! Maybe the guy’s got a lot on his mind! Maybe there’s a hot girl behind you and he’s making googly eyes at her!” He watched as Mike spinned around to check over his shoulder. Dustin threw his hands up in the air. “Meanwhile, Sinclair over here is ruining the Party!”

Lucas clenched his jaw. He had a white knuckled grip on his plastic fork and it was starting to bend. “Back off, man. I’m not ruining anything. Jesus, you’re so dramatic.”

“Aren’t you?” Dustin asked, bitterly. It seemed like a rhetorical question. “Seriously, dude. Just think about it. If you’re busy with practice when are you ever going to have time for us, huh?” His voice dropped to a whisper. “What if something happens? What if the MindFlayer comes back? Then what? We go and save the world while you sit on the bench and dribble a stupid ball?”

Lucas stood up, chair screeching. Accidentally drawing the attention of the students around them. “That’s not going to happen, Dustin. You know that he’s gone.”

“And what if he’s not?” Dustin demanded.

Will could feel all the blood drain from his face. He thought back to the past couple of days, the chills, the night terrors, all the times where he’d glanced twice at a shadow. His gaze dropped down to his hands and he flexed them, moving each one of his fingers individually, making sure he still had control over his movements. He reached back and rubbed vigorously at the back of his neck. There was nothing to feel, no sense of danger, no tingling at the base of his spine to alert him. Regardless, Will began to wonder if Dustin knew something the rest of them didn’t.

“Dude!” Mike chided, voice sharp and harsh. He smacked him in the arm. “Don’t say that shit.”

Dustin bristled. “Why not? It’s come back before, hasn’t it! How do we know that it won’t do it again and again and again until there’s nothing left of Hawkins!” He opened his mouth, presumably to add more onto his tirade. But he stopped when he saw the look on Will’s face, mouth hanging open almost comically as he desperately attempted to backtrack. “I mean, I doubt that it’ll happen. Y’know, those fireworks really got to him. And your mom and Hopper definitely closed all the gates. For like, good.”

Mike glared at him.

Dustin fixed his hat again and laughed, high pitched and awkward. He waved his hand in the air, like he was using the Force and erasing the past hour from all of their minds. “But what do I know, right?”

Will didn’t feel reassured in the slightest. His temples were throbbing, a dull ache radiating around his forehead like a band being wrapped tighter and tighter. He pressed his knuckles against his eyes and tried his best not to fold over the table and scream.

“Will?” Mike asked.

“It’s fine,” Will said. He could see Dustin’s guilty look from underneath his eyelashes and he sighed. “Really, guys. This doesn’t have anything to do with you. I'm just tired.”

Lucas dropped back into the chair and waved at the tables around them, somewhat sheepishly. There was a tight, pinched look to his face. He seemed agitated, but whether it was about the argument or the mention of the Upside Down, Will couldn’t tell. Maybe it was a mixture of both.

“Way to be subtle,” Lucas hissed.

Dustin scoffed. “This is unbelievable. Me? I’m the most discreet out of all of you. You’re the one who got up all huffing and puffing.”

Mike groaned. “Can we change the subject?”

It went silent for a few minutes. Next to him, Lucas was stewing, bouncing his leg up and down against the floor and rattling the table. Across from them, Dustin was picking at the wrapper from his chocolate pudding, a hot flush to his cheeks. And Mike, well, he was watching Will, a considering tilt to his head, eyes wide and shiny, concerned.

Will felt wrong footed, caught off guard. There were rarely silences when the Party was together. They were always shouting or laughing, speaking over each other to be heard, doing their best to steal the spotlight. More often than not, Will was content to sit back and listen to his friends. On the good days, if she was comfortable enough, El was a particularly talkative person. Sometimes they’d be in the middle of a conversation and she’d stop them, asking Max about going shopping or if she knew when the next Karate Kid movie would come out. Occasionally, she’d even tell them stories about the lab or about the time she went to Chicago to find her lost sister.

Will loved to hear all of their stories, but he enjoyed El’s the most. There was just something about him that got her and vice versa. El had once said that they were connected, bonded together by monsters and shadows and fire. But it was more than that. They knew what it was like to be discarded by the ones that should’ve cared for them. There was something unique about the two of them. A life that neither of them had wanted.

He bit down on his nail. She’d grown up a lot from the first time he’d met her. They all had. And it scared him. Maybe even more than the Demogorgon ever had. Because this had always been his. The Party had always been just a couple streets down from his. Dustin had always been the one that biked home with Will, a shoulder to cry on when things got tough, his home a safe place to hide out at. Just like Lucas had always been the first one to wish him a happy birthday over the coms at midnight, an overflowing well of kindness that never stopped, someone to hold his hand in the dark and treat him like he was normal. And Mike, the one who had never stopped believing in him, a best friend, and a protector. But lately it seemed like the world had started spinning backwards on its axis. Lucas was snappy and Dustin was busy and Mike just didn’t care enough anymore. And who knew what Max was doing these days, though he’d never been that close to her anyways. It was just Will, the only one who remained unchanged. Except for in all the ways that mattered.

Will blinked rapidly. He shook his head and forced himself onto another train of thought. Nothing had happened yet, despite their differences, they were all still sitting at the same table, shoulders and knees knocking.

“Did you guys see the news last night?“ Lucas asked, suddenly. He scuffed his shoe against the floor. “About the missing kid?”

Mike’s expression grew pensive. “The one from Loch Nora?” He confirmed. Lucas nodded. “Yeah. My mom has been wigging out about it since yesterday afternoon. Now she’s decided to push our curfew forward. She even made Nancy drop me and Holly off at school today. It’s ridiculous.”

Will hadn’t been allowed out past ten o’clock since nineteen eighty three. He might’ve found it annoying but it certainly wasn’t ridiculous.

“Same here,” Dustin said. “My mom wouldn’t even let me out to go to the grocery store. It’s like she thinks I’m going to get kidnapped walking down the street in broad daylight.”

Will smiled, humorlessly. “It’s happened before.”

Mike’s head snapped up. “Will—“

Will didn’t let him finish. “Is that what they think happened to her? A kidnapping?”

Dustin shrugged. “What else could it be? The kid lives in Loch Nora, for all we know someone could’ve snatched her for some quick ransom money.”

“I don’t think so,” Lucas disagreed. “Dad said he knows the family, apparently all the kids have their own bank accounts and shit.” He grabbed the apple off of his plate and started tossing it back and forth between his hands. “I heard him talking to Chief Powell last night and the police are pretty sure she ran away.”

Mike frowned. “What’s there to run away from?”

Dustin had a weird look on his face. “Steve said he used to run away all the time.” He tugged on his bottom lip with his teeth. “Just because someone is rich doesn’t mean that their life is perfect. Haven’t you seen Steve’s empty house?”

Lucas nodded, pointing at him. “That’s a valid point. I mean, what if she was being mistreated or something? Maybe her grandparents showed up and took her.”

“It’s usually the relatives,” Dustin allowed.

Will had a weird sense of deja vu. “That’s what Hopper always says. Ninety nine out of one hundred.” He stuck his fork down straight into his soggy turkey. “But what about the one percent? What about the kids that go missing without a reasonable explanation? What happens to them?” Will didn’t wait for an answer. He knew exactly what happened to them.

“You don’t think it’s the Upside Down, do you?” Mike asked, voice serious. He leaned across the table, just avoiding putting his sleeve into a ketchup stain. When Will didn’t respond right away, he panicked. “It’s not like you can feel him, right?”

“No,” Will said, strangely hollow. “It’s not him.”

Not this time.

Lucas shivered, which should’ve been impossible considering the sheer heat of the cafeteria. He wrapped his arms around himself. “But the gates are closed, aren’t they? Nothing can get out?”

Will watched as goosebumps started to prickle up and down along his arms. If he squinted, he could see the same little bumps appearing on all of his friends.

“Will!” Dustin demanded.

“They’re closed,” Will said. The rest of his sentence went left unsaid. Even he didn’t know how he was going to finish it.

He thought back to his face on the missing posters all over town. Once he’d gotten back, it had taken weeks for Jonathan to bring them all down. Even then, he’d still seen some littering the ground by the library or the arcade. When he closed his eyes at night, he could still see it clear as day with the words: ZOMBIE BOY printed across it in bright red ink like blood, as if it had been burned into his retinas.

***

There was something in the alleyway behind what had used to be Benny’s Burgers. The building itself was old and dilapidated, its sign swinging loosely in the wind, rocking back from side to side, the screws creaking from the rust as it moved. Along the walls, windows were boarded up with thick, brown wood. Even the paint had started to chip, fading into an ugly pee stained yellow. It seemed as if it should’ve been a set on a horror movie. All it needed was a ghost to haunt it.

He had been on his way home from the comic book store when he’d first passed the old restaurant. It was a hot, humid day in Hawkins and the breeze was dry, occasionally rustling his hair as he walked. Initially, he’d chalked up the smell as the heat, thinking that maybe somebody had forgotten to check the dumpster. But as he had gotten closer, his stomach had started to growl dangerously and suddenly all he could see were the flashes of light in the lab, the impossible feeling of being two places at once, mind torn in half as he watched the Demodogs crawl up from the portal in the basement. It smelled familiar. He could practically taste it on his tongue; rot and decay and the strong stench of death overheated.

Cautiously, he tiptoed around the corner. Without the shade of the building in front of him, he was in direct contact with the sun and it was shining down at him, white and livid and stark. He held up a hand over his eyes and squinted. There was confetti spray painted on one whole side of the brick wall. Words and artwork and scribbles were splashed across it. Will could tell from the difference in handwriting, that multiple artists had been there. It was a canvas of cartoon characters and initials wrapped in hearts, an outlandish portrait of Hopper in his sheriffs hat, badge gleaming as he smoked a cigarette. If he concentrated, he could see parts of a letter covered up with bright green paint. The end of it was signed by someone named Eddie. Although, despite all the abstract colors and pictures, the thing that stood out most to him was a sentence written in big, blocky purple letters. It said: “BAD THINGS LIVE HERE.” The word live was lopsided, lower than the rest of them. It seemed as if someone had written it in a rush. This was no ordinary rambling from a bored high school kid. It was a warning. An omen.

When he tore his attention away from the wall, he saw a small lump lying tucked in close against the dumpster. From what he could see, it had matted orange fur, covered in a black sticky substance along with a sickening red. He pulled his shirt up over his mouth and stepped closer, attempting to get a good look at it. Now he could make out the shape of an ear, though there was only one, the opposite side of the head was coated in gore, as if the other ear had been bitten off. He craned his neck, not daring to venture any further, eyes scanning over the tiny figure. Will audibly gagged when he saw the mangled tail. It was a dog, abandoned in an alleyway, flies circling it, drawn to the body like moths to a light.

Unable to handle it anymore, he bent over and braced his hands on his knees. For a second he just hovered there, dry heaving over the dirty cement. Nothing managed to come up though. His stomach was wrapped in knots so tight that nothing could slide past. Will retched again and then spit out a glob of green flem onto the sidewalk. Finally able to stand up, he wiped the back of his hand against his mouth and turned and headed back the way he had come. His footsteps were gentle, but every slap of the sole of his shoes against the pavement sounded like a gunshot.

“You saw it, didn’t you?” A voice asked, startling him. He spun around, hackles raised. But deflated when he saw the little kid standing there. She had vibrant red hair, brighter than Max’s. It was pulled back into a tight braid, forming a strict line down the length of her spine, though she had flyaways framing her round, heart shaped face. She was dressed in baggy, dark blue overalls with baby pink converse. The shoelaces were soaked with mud.

“What?” He said.

The girl nodded at the alleyway. Her hands were hooked through her backpack straps, though he could tell that they were shaking. There was something wild in her eyes, fear mixed with something sharp and unreadable. She had a nervous energy surrounding her, a restlessness that Will often associated with Jonathan. They were a few feet away from each other and she seemed content to keep it that way, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she glanced between him and the ground.

“The dog,” she clarified. “You saw it, right?”

Will wiped his hand against his mouth again. “Yeah,” he answered. Suddenly a thought struck him. “That wasn’t yours, was it?”

She shook her head. “No. It’s been there for a few days now. It’s a stray, I think.” She frowned, tugging on one side of her backpack and pulling the strap further out than the other one. “My friend… she used to come by and feed it. He must’ve died of hunger.”

“Haven’t you seen it?” Will asked, confused. What about the sight of the animal would indicate that it died of starvation. “It’s all bloody. I think it got attacked.”

The girl bit her lip. “It wasn’t like that… before. It was different. All skinny and pointy. I could see his ribs.” She hesitated, shifting her weight. “It’s been here for three days. I came by this morning to take it home and bury it. But when I showed up, it looked like that. And I didn’t know how I was going to get it home without someone stopping me and asking questions.”

Will frowned. “It’s only been like that today?”

“Yeah,” she shrugged. Her eyes were shiny like she was about to cry. For the first time, Will noticed how young she was. Maybe just barely older than he’d been when the Demogorgon had taken him to the Upside Down. It was hard to tell. Will had never spent that much time around children besides Holly and Erica. Though she had an innocence to her. A naiveness.

She kicked at the ground, bottom lip wobbling. “I just can’t leave him there. I don’t want him to think that nobody loved him.” She sniffled, cheeks blotchy with emotion. “My friend… she always wanted to take him home with her. She even named him.”

Will couldn’t help but think of Chester, of how much he had cherished him and of how much he had taken for granted. Chester had been around before Will could even walk. When his mom had brought him and Jonathan to the pet store, Will had crawled right out of his mom’s arms and over to his kennel. Later on, the vet had told his mom that Will had been the only person Chester had approached. When he had died, Will couldn’t help but feel like he hadn’t spent enough time with him, always focused on his friends or on homework. But that was the thing about pets, the world never gave you enough of them. No matter how much you wanted them to live forever.

He felt a pang of sympathy. “Does she know?”

The girl gave him a look. “No. She, uh, left like three days ago and I haven’t been able to get in contact with her.” She tucked a piece of hair back into its place and then let her hands hang down, limp. “I don’t even know what to say. I just thought… maybe it would hurt less if I took him home and gave him a resting place, you know? Just like she always wanted to do.” She blinked hard, as if clearing dust from her vision. “I don’t know. It’s stupid.”

Will glanced at his watch and then back at her. He only had half an hour left before his mom and Jonathan got home. And he was already sure to be in trouble for ditching Dustin after the bell rang, despite his promise. Though none of that really mattered. He already knew what he was going to do.

“Well,” he said, slowly. “I’ve got a pair of spare hands.”

The girl's eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Will answered, grinning at her excitement. He held out his hand, waiting for her to take it. “My name is Will. You got a tarp or something around here?”

She slid her palm against his, pumping their hands up and down once and then twice. She gave him a smile in return. “I’m Liz. And… I’ve got a backpack?”

Will pinched the bridge of his nose. “Alright. I guess we can work with a backpack. You don’t have your school stuff in there right?”

***

The night had seemed to disappear right before his eyes. He’d barely managed to get home in time for Jonathan’s car to come rumbling through the driveway. And soon after that, his mom burst into the house in a flurry of motion, tossing plastic grocery bags on the table as she went. By some stroke of luck, neither of them had managed to notice the red blood stains on the bottom of his pant legs, or the dirt lining the underneath of his fingernails.

Unfortunately, the sight of the dead animal had been enough to trigger a part of his brain that he didn’t think existed anymore. All night long he had tossed and turned, dreaming of Demodogs scaling the walls and scientists being stalked through the hallways. At one point, he’d been watching a Demodog tear into someone, and the next moment he was the one hovering over the body, crimson dripping from his teeth. Needless to say, he hadn’t gotten more than an hour’s worth of sleep.

He sighed, sticking his head into his locker. It was dark in there, despite the small streaks of light creeping through, but even that was a reprieve from his stinging eyes. He pressed the side of his cheek against the cool metal of the locker and made himself inhale and exhale deeply, mouth parted.

“Hey,” Mike said. He pressed a hand against his back, grasping the flimsy fabric of Will’s shirt. Heat seemed to be coming off of him in waves. “Are you okay?”

Will gave him a halfhearted thumbs up from his spot inside the locker. The second period of the day started in less than five minutes but all he felt like doing was curling up on the floor and falling asleep. He’d woken up with a pounding headache and on the ride over it had started to ache all the way down to his jaw. His mom had offered to give him an Ibuprofen with his orange juice that morning but he could hardly swallow down his eggs.

He had been off all day long but it seemed like it was getting worse as the minutes ticked by. He predicted that he’d be spending the majority of third and fourth period inside a bathroom stall, trying to get the world to stop spinning, knocking his feet out from under him.

“Just peachy,” Will answered.

Mike scoffed. “You’ve been like this all week.”

Will did his best to ignore the warmth in chest after hearing that response. Sometimes he was still surprised at how much Mike paid attention, at how much he cared. He cleared his throat. “Like what?”

“I don’t know,” Mike said, frustrated. “Standoffish. Quiet. Secretive. You name it.” He nudged his foot against Will’s heel and then left it there, a point of contact between them. “We’re your friends. And yet lately it’s like you don’t want anything to do with us! You’re not even here anymore.”

Will pulled his head out his locker and turned around to face Mike. The fast movement caused his head to swim, eyes going in and out of focus. His pulse was fluttering against the vessels, practically jumping against the carotid arteries in his throat.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Will ground out, incredulously. He bent his index and middle fingers into air quotes as he talked. “I’m not here anymore?”

Mike had an angry flush forming inside his cheekbones. He threw his hands up in the air. “You’re not, Will! You’re not! You’ve been acting like a totally different person ever since summer. I can’t even begin to count how many times you’ve skipped out on our hangouts! We planned a whole campaign just for you and you never even bothered to show up! You just made your mom call and make up a bunch of bullshit excuses for you instead!”

Will shook his head. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it?” Mike shot back. He ran a hand through his hair. “Even now, I’m standing in front of you and it’s like you’re just seeing straight through me.” He twisted his lips into a grimace. “I mean, really. What’s going on with you? I just want to figure it out, okay? I just want to help. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

Will’s chest was tight. He was sure that if he looked hard enough he’d see a thousand tiny vines wrapped around his body, anchoring him to a world below the earth, slowly burrowing under his skin, tugging him back to the realm without light. Gulping, he settled his gaze on the freckle at the edge of Mike’s nose, just below his piercing dark brown eyes.

He didn’t know what to say. There was no good way to explain all the inner turmoil he’d been dealing with since the Fourth of July. He didn’t know how to explain that when they killed the MindFlayer for good, the hurt had echoed all the way down into his very bones. How every time he saw someone skateboard down the street he was filled with such immense guilt that it made him physically ill. How useless he felt watching the shadow monster drag El across the dirty floor, its big hulking figure completely covering her small frame.

It was impossible for anyone else to understand. After all, everything bad that had happened in the last few years was because of him. All the chaos and pain and death was because he couldn’t fire his gun quick enough and hit the stupid motherfucking Demogorgon. He couldn’t explain that no matter how happy everyone seemed, he couldn’t get the image of their faces contorted in terror out of his head. It was ingrained in him. Everytime he closed his eyes, he’d see his mom screaming and sobbing, crawling at Hopper’s arms in order to get to Bob.

Because it was all his fault.

He didn’t know how to put all of that into words. So instead he settled for not saying anything at all. He gave Mike a weak smile, pressing the hard part of his hand down against his sternum. “There’s nothing going on,” he assured him. “Things have just been crazy, you know? With Hopper in the hospital and mom taking temporary custody of El, it’s just been busy.”

Mike’s eyebrows twitched. “Really?”

Will shrugged. “Really.”

“Prove it then,” Mike challenged. He tipped his chin down, studying him from underneath his eyelashes. “Join a club with me.”

“A club?” Will repeated, surprised. “Since when were you interested in joining a club?”

Mike slid his backpack down his shoulder and unzipped it, rummaging through the papers thrown haphazardly inside it, before pulling out a bright orange piece of cardstock. There were dark letters typed all over the front of it, made in a choppy, droopy sort of font.

Will read aloud. “Hellfire club?”

Mike smiled, practically shoving the paper into hands. “It’s a D&D group. I heard the campaign goes on for the entire semester. It sounds really cool. Me and Dustin and Lucas are joining.”

“But we already have a Party,” Will told him. He was taken aback. Mike had always been very particular about who joined. He took his campaigns very seriously. In all their years of playing, he’d only ever let Lucas be the Dungeon Master. And even then, he’d had to disclose almost his entire outline.

Mike’s smile dimmed. “Well yeah. But I mean, this is like an actual group. It’s nothing compared to just sitting in my basement all day.” He cracked his knuckles awkwardly. “And it’s not like we’re splitting up the Party, y’know. We’re just adding onto it.”

He kept talking but all Will could hear was Mike standing in the garage, rain ricocheting off the pavement. Saying; “We’re not kids anymore. I mean what did you think, really? That we’d never get girlfriends. That we were just going to sit in my basement all day and play games for the rest of our lives?”

Will cut him off. “I don’t know, Mike. Isn’t that kind of childish?” He stared down at the crumpled paper in his hands, running his thumb over the large skull plastered over the entire top half of the page. “It’s high school, right? Shouldn’t we be joining sports teams and stuff?”

Mike blanched. “Who said it was childish?”

Will shook his head. Normally, he would’ve been ecstatic to join something like this. D&D had always been a way to get out of his head, to battle monsters and be able to actually stand up to them, finally the one to save the day. But ever since the summer he had felt something shrivel up and die inside him. All the stories of peril and triumph suddenly seemed pointless. What was the point in pretending to be a hero when he was closer to the villain.

He handed back the paper. “Look—“

“It’s not childish!” Mike said, firmly. He refused to take the paper from him, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “The Dungeon Master is literally twenty and he’s still playing!”

“Wow,” Will responded, dryly. He raised his eyebrows. “That makes me feel a lot better.”

Mike stared at him, lips pursed. “I thought you’d be excited about this. I mean, you’re right. It is high school. And Lucas is already drifting away from us and Max walks around the hallway like she’s still stuck in a memory. I don’t know, I guess I just wanted a way for us to all still be together.”

Will closed his eyes. He shoved the paper into his locker without looking at it. “I’ll think about it, okay?”

Mike brightened. “Really?”

“Really,” Will answered.

“You’re gonna love it,” Mike gushed. The rest of his sentence was interrupted by a kid accidentally knocking their shoulder into his as a large group of students sprinted past him and down the hallway. He checked his watch and then rolled his eyes. “There’s still a minute left before the bell rings. What are they running for?”

Will zipped up his jacket. “You better get to class.”

“What?” Mike blurted. “I’m fine.”

“It’s on the other side of the school,” Will corrected.

Mike groaned dramatically. He hiked his backpack up his shoulders and gave Will a two fingered wave before heading off. He turned around before he reached the corner. “Hey! Let El know that I’ll pick her up at eight tonight. Make sure she’s on time, I’ve got something planned!”

Will didn’t bother answering. He wasn’t sure what would’ve come out of his mouth if he had. Turning back to his locker, he finished putting the rest of his books into his bag, carefully sliding his art folder in at the top. He went to close the door but stopped when he saw a random note at the bottom of his locker.

The bell rang and he forgot all about it.

***

Five minutes later he was hunched over the sink in the boys bathroom, washing his mouth out with water and desperately avoiding his reflection. He’d been in the middle of math class when his body had started shaking uncontrollably. When he had picked up his pencil, his hand had been trembling so badly that he couldn’t even write his name on his test. A few seconds after that, Jennifer Hayes had leaned over and asked him if he needed to go to the doctor’s and suddenly all he could think about was being stuck in a hospital bed, burning alive, surrounded by faces that he should’ve known but didn’t recognize. The next thing he knew, he was stumbling out of the classroom and across the hallway to throw up in Mrs. McKinley’s trash can.

He gurgled the water and then spit it into the sink, watching as it circled around the drain before disappearing. If he was being honest, he had half expected to see a black slug staining the white porcelain an ugly grey color. But there were no slugs. And there were no monsters from another dimension trying to take over his body. He was just paranoid.

He braced his hands against the counter and stared at his veins, tracing them up and down his arms. One spot in the crook of his elbow was scarred from the needles he’d had poked into him. It was small but bumpy, with green discoloration under his skin, from all the times they’d blown out his vein with the IV’s. That was the least noticeable scar he had. The others were bright red crisscrosses marked along the tender skin of his forearms, from where he’d tried to claw at himself in the shed, trying to use pain to center himself and gain back some semblance of control. Dustin had always said that those scars were a sign of how badass he was for fighting against the MindFlayer. A sign that he had survived and not only that, but won. Although, the rest of the world didn’t know every intimate detail behind his marks. He’d realized that the day Troy had tauntingly asked him if he had tried to kill himself and then said that he was sad that he hadn’t succeeded. Called him a coward for not being able to go through with it. Ever since then, Will had kept his arms covered in long sleeved shirts or jackets.

He let out a breath. His senses had been going haywire all day long. The back of his neck had started throbbing multiple times at breakfast and yet nothing happened. It was just his body, preparing him for a threat that no longer existed.

Will reached back and rubbed at his neck. It was pulsing over and over and over again. As if the MindFlayer was in the same room as him and creeping closer. He took a step back from the sink and rolled his shoulders. There was nothing in the bathroom, he knew that, but apparently something inside of him disagreed. Because his head was pounding, worse than it had been all day. It was like someone had taken a sledgehammer to his head and started going at it. He pressed the heel of his hands against his eyes and counted to ten. He’d seen his mom do it once, though he didn’t think it ever really worked for her.

He opened his eyes. Nothing had changed.

“You’re being ridiculous,” he told himself. The gates were closed. The MindFlayer was dead. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

He glanced up and caught his reflection in the mirror. His skin erupted into goosebumps at the same time that he noticed there was a figure standing behind him. Will screamed and spun around, feet sliding against the slick floor as he ran towards the door and practically threw himself out of the bathroom. He stumbled out into the hallway and sucked in air, holding his hand against his chest, heart drumming away in his ears.

“What the fuck!” He swore.

Will couldn’t comprehend what he saw, it had all been so fast. There had been a flash of pale skin and sunken eyes and dull red hair. Body limp and droopy, like a puppet being held up on strings. It was a person but not. Normal people didn’t appear out of thin air and they certainly didn’t trigger his senses. Just being inside there with that thing had made him feel like all the energy was being sucked out of him.

He tugged at his hair, pivoting on his feet as he debated whether or not to go ask for help.

But what would he even say?

For all he knew, this whole thing could’ve been a figment of his imagination. Hadn’t he just been thinking that he’d finally gone crazy?

“What the fuck!” He said again.

Will flexed his hands, nervously. He knew he couldn’t just leave that thing in there for somebody else to find. He couldn’t stomach the thought of walking away and letting another person get hurt because he couldn’t be brave enough to stop it. He’d just never done this part before. It was always El or Steve or Hopper that headed into the danger. Sure, he had tried to stand up to the MindFlayer. But that only took one try and he’d certainly learned his lesson from that. Whenever Will had gotten the courage to stand up for himself, it had always backfired on him, leaving him scared and shaken and less inclined to say or do anything. Before the MindFlayer had taught him that, it had been his father.

Will ground his teeth together and bounced himself up and down on the balls of his feet. He was not even five feet from the door, but it seemed like an impenetrable battlefield he had to cross in order to get there. Though the longer he stood and waited, the more his body was beginning to betray him. If he didn’t go through with it soon, he never would.

Without another thought, Will charged ahead and marched straight through the door, letting it slam back against the wall. He rounded the corner and tilted his head up in preparation, a familiar action, even if it wasn’t one of his own. Except there was nothing there. Whatever it was that he had seen was gone. The bathroom was untouched, toilet paper still cluttering the floor in the corners of the wall, puddles of water underneath the sinks from leaky faucets. There was nothing to suggest that an otherworldly presence had strood right over his shoulder just minutes ago.

He huffed. So much for that.

“Will?” A voice called.

He whipped his head around and gaped in surprise. Now that he was closer, he could make out the details of her face. The glossy brown eyes hidden behind large plain framed glasses. The short sunrise colored hair, curling around her ears. And the tan bandage wrapped around her index finger. It was Barbara Holland.

“Barb?” He gasped.

She blinked at him. “You can see me?”

Will shivered. “Why wouldn’t I be able to see you?”

Barb had a grim set to her mouth. “Because, no one’s been able to see me for three years.” She seemed so solid, so real. But the harder Will looked, the more things began to stand out. Like the way her hair didn’t shine in the bright yellow lights of the bathroom. Like the way that the air around her shimmered, waving like a mirage. Like the way that her skin was see-through around the bones of her wrist and jaw. “For awhile Nancy could hear me, but after a few weeks that stopped working. I couldn’t get to her from the veil.”

Will shook his head. “What are you saying?”

“I’ve been here the whole time,” Barb said. There was no frustration or bitterness in her tone. Just resignation. “I think something went wrong when I died, Will. I think there’s something stopping me from completely crossing over.”

He rubbed at his temples. His head was throbbing in tune with his heartbeat. A sharp, lub dub tempo that didn’t slow down. He pinched the skin on the top of his hand and forced himself to concentrate. “This doesn’t make any sense. So for the past three years, you’ve done what? Just followed us around? How does that even work?”

Barb clenched her teeth, he could see the bones locking together through her skin, like he was observing her through an x-ray. “I don’t know. At first, I could only follow around Steve or Nancy. Then once you came out of the Upside Down, I could watch you. But I’m still limited to where I can go. At first, I tried to leave the town and go someplace else, but it’s like there’s an invisible line around Hawkins, a force field stopping me from going.”

“And no one has ever seen you before?” Will questioned. “Not even your parents?”

She flickered, body going in and out of focus like a movie on a projector. When she settled, she had a faraway look in her eyes. “I did my best. But they could never see me. No matter what I did. And eventually they packed up and left.”

Will’s legs were tingling, like he had pins and needles. He shifted his weight, but it didn’t help. When he glanced back up, she had a guilty look on her face.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “That happens when I stay in close contact with the living for too long.”

Will frowned. “How long have you been watching me?”

She pursed her lips. “For about a month. It happened right after the Fourth of July. After that night I haven’t been able to go anywhere else, I’m tethered to you.”

“Why me?” Will whispered.

Barb didn’t respond. But he got the feeling that she knew the answer. And whatever it was, she wasn’t keen on sharing it.

The door opened with a loud squeak, hinges grinding against each other. And then footsteps slapped against the wet tile as a guy came into view. He had short blonde hair and intense blue eyes, a green letterman jacket hung across his shoulders. Will had seen him hanging around the gymnasium after school, dribbling a basketball as he talked to a shy looking cheerleader. He was pretty sure that Lucas had brought him up at least once or twice. But he couldn’t remember his name.

The guy gave him a weird look. “You okay, man?”

Will nodded, throat dry. “Yeah, all good.”

He frowned. “Is there someone else in here?”

Will carefully didn’t look at Barb. “Just me.”

“Huh,” the guy said. “You normally talk to yourself?”

Will laughed, awkwardly. He ran a hand through his hair. “Uh, well. You know how it is.” At the guy’s blank stare, Will made a vague gesture with his hands. “Drugs, I mean.”

The other guy’s features softened and he patted Will on the shoulder as he passed him. “Be careful with those, kid. Munson might make a fair price but he’s as sketchy as they come.”

Will didn’t know who Munson was. “Totally.”

The guy nodded in approval. “You have a nice day.”

“Yep,” Will said and booked it out of the bathroom.

***

Later that afternoon found him standing in the middle of Steve Harrington’s backyard. After he’d barged out of the bathroom, he’d grabbed the last few things he needed from his locker and swung by the office to hand them a poorly written note he claimed was from his mom, that excused him from the rest of his class periods. Then he’d hopped onto his bike and made his way across town to the richest neighborhood in Hawkins, listening to a soundtrack of Barb complaining about him missing school the entire ride. Will wasn’t sure how she expected him to just sit in English and pretend that he didn’t have a dead girl breathing down the back of his neck.

“What are we doing here?” Barb spoke, finally. She’d been quiet ever since he’d pedaled down the street and realized where they were going.

Will had his feet planted on the edge of the pool, glowering down at the cool blue water below him. Originally, he’d thought that maybe by taking Barb back to the place she’d died, that they’d miraculously find the answers they needed. But the harsh truth was that she never died in their world, instead she’d spent her last moments stuck inside the Upside Down, crying and calling out for Nancy. He would know. He had been the only one around to hear it.

“You really don’t feel anything?” Will pressed.

Barb glanced over her shoulder like a Demogorgon was going to manifest from the shadows and leap out and steal her away. She kept fading in and out of existence, something Will had noticed that she did when she was scared or anxious. Every time it happened, he felt a strange jolt in his body, like he’d just jammed a fork into a socket, little shockwaves of electricity running up and down the nerves in his spine. He chose not to mention it. She seemed distressed enough as it was.

“What exactly am I supposed to be feeling?” Barb snapped back. She was agitated, antsy.

Will bit his lip. He never did like it when people got upset with him. It triggered something in him, a part of his brain that knew how to dodge beer bottles and slink through the house and remain unheard, a part of his brain that flinched back at raised voices and explosive movements. But in reality, Will had just as much of a temper as everybody else, if not a worse one. He just hid it better. Held himself back. Took the hits no matter how appealing swinging back might’ve sounded. Because he was his mother’s son but he was also his father’s and people tended to forget that.

The sound of a door opening drew their attention. Will swiveled around just in time to see Steve stepping through and out into the light, hand held up above his head to shade his face as he looked over at them. He didn’t seem mad or even shocked to see Will standing there, frozen in panic like a deer in the headlights.

Will held up a hand, unsure if he should wave or make a break for it. He settled for the first one. It wasn’t like Steve was going to call the cops. “Uh hey!”

Steve raised his eyebrows. “Hi?”

“I thought you had work,” Will said, cringing as soon as it came out of his mouth. Next to him, Barb made a noise somewhere between a sigh and a laugh. He wished for a second that she was corporal so he could elbow her in the side like he did to Dustin.

Steve put his hands on his hips. Oh boy. “Yeah? That’s funny. Cause I actually was under the impression that you had school on Thursday’s. Didn’t realize that changed in the year since I’d been there.”

Will flushed. “Uh, sorry?”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Do I even want to know?”

“No?” Will guessed. Like an idiot.

Steve had a pinched look on his face. It seemed like he was debating on whether or not he should pry. And maybe if it had been Mike or Lucas instead of Will that he would’ve. Instead, he just shook his head and turned to slip back inside. “Alright then,” he called out. “I’ll let you get back whatever it was that you were doing. Just do me a favor and stay away from the woods, okay? There’s been some weird ass noises coming from there and I haven’t had time to go see what it is.”

Barb looked at him sharply.

“Sure,” Will agreed.

Steve sent him one last suspicious look and then slipped back inside, locking the door behind him. Will waited until another light turned on inside the house and then tightened his backpack straps and started to make his way into the trees on the edge of the Harrington’s property. Barb followed along behind him, an exasperated look on her face, mumbling something about Steve as she went.

The woods loomed over them as they got closer. They appeared to be much more welcoming in the middle of the day. Unlike the night, where every snapping twig could mean that something was tracking you, and every whistle of the wind could be disguising a low, spit slick, snarl. Will used to spend a lot of time in the woods when he was a kid. It’s where he and Jonathan had built Castle Byers after all. A home away from home. He never used to worry about the sounds of animals chittering in the distance, even used to seek the sounds out, curious. Occasionally, he had gotten close enough to a random squirrel or raccoon to sketch them, though they always scattered away before he could fully finish. He had tried to go back once, in the early spring of eighty three, angry at himself, at the world, at his friends and family for the smothering, suffocating feeling he couldn’t get rid of. He had made it farther out into the woods than he ever had before that day, even managed to creep up on a deer, footfalls softer and more meticulous as he avoided every noise inducing leaf and puddle, some leftover instinct. Things had been running smoothly until he forgot that he hadn’t set his watch ahead and that the daylight still seeped out quickly, steady at first and then all at once. And Will had found himself lost and jumpy, afraid to call out for his mom, yet more terrified to be stuck in the deep depths of the forest. Eventually Hopper had found him, boots clomping through the moss, flashlight beaming down at his tear streaked face. Back then, Will hadn’t known how Hopper was able to find him. But he had his suspects, especially when they realized that El hadn’t been as dead as they’d all been led to believe.

As they entered, Will stepped over a large, prickly bush and then ducked under a swaying branch. The woods were silent around them. It was the middle of the day and the sun shone through the tall trees, splintering the light across the clearing, highlighting random streams of water that made the grass squishy underneath his feet. He took a deep breath and inhaled the scent of the earth. The fresh morning dew on the grass, the thick mud smeared around from people’s footsteps, the strong smell of pine trees and dripping red sap.

In hindsight, maybe trekking through the woods to find an unidentifiable noise without a weapon or even a way to communicate with someone might not have even the smartest. But now that he had set foot inside the woods, he could feel something calling out to him, directing him in twisting pathways, reeling him in like a fish snared on a hook, a siren's call to the supernatural.

Barb rubbed at her sternum. She looked queasy. “Where are you going?”

Will barely registered the sound of her voice. It sounded like she was speaking underwater, muffled and incomprehensible. She spoke again and he tilted his head, waving his hand at her like he was swatting at a fly. The talking was throwing him off, messing with the connection. Whatever was in there, it was only meant for him to see. And it didn’t want any outsiders tagging along with him.

“Will!” She barked.

He trudged on, ignorant to the world around him. It was as if the pathways were magic, bending and flowing as he walked, giving him instructions. When he was younger, his mom had told him and Jonathan stories about blue lights that appeared for a traveler and if you followed them, they would lead you to one of your greatest hopes or goals. Except, the lights were purposely misleading. Taking you over a cliff or drowning you in a lake. His mom had told the stories that ended with riches and fortune, a dream for a single mother without the means. And his grandmother had told the tales that depicted the lights as people, loved ones and dear friends, leading you astray, laughing themselves silly as you danced and sang all the way to your doom. They were called will-o’-the-wisps.

Jonathan, of course, had always been more fascinated in the way his mom had told things. But Will had felt a strange sort of kinship with his grandmother, understanding and almost intrigued by the more sinister side of things.

Will only snapped out of his daze when his feet stopped moving, body tipping forward slightly with the lack of motion, dizzy and dazed. He felt groggy, like he’d just awoken from a long sleep, eyes almost too heavy to keep open. Now that he was standing still, he could feel the blisters forming against the sensitive soles of his feet and the wetness of blood that meant he’d torn something open. He didn’t know how he hadn’t recognized the stinging pain before.

“Will,” Barb said again.

He went to look at her but something in front of him had grabbed his attention. It was small and round, the right shape to be mistaken for an owl hole in a tree. But it was sticky and not with sap. The opening wasn’t an opening at all. It was covered with a thick glob of growing orange, rising up and down like it was breathing. There was a spider stuck inside of it, suspended in time, caught in a web to be prey for something that wouldn’t be filled.

It was a gate.

Barb was staring at him. She seemed stronger. Her outline was stark and vivid. And her skin was tan, with a rosy color high in her cheeks. Even her hair was brighter and fuller, bouncing on top of her head. The light from the portal fell across her figure and made an interesting half shadow, covering one whole side of her face like a mask.

“You look—“ he started.

But she cut him off, horror in her eyes. “Your hands!”

He dropped his gaze and raised his hands. His palms were glowing a bright, sickly green color. The lines in his hands were darker than the rest, forming a weird triangle. Even his veins were affected, popping towards the surface, like they were going to burst out of his skin and spray blood all over him. They were a weird blue color, almost purple like they’d hit the air and received a liter of oxygen. The green color reminded him of the little glow in the dark stars that he’d helped El put on her ceiling.

He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the sound of someone yelling his name. It was Steve, winded and breathless. But worried all the same. And he was approaching.

Will watched in shock as the spider got sucked through the portal, the fluid inside the sac churning around violently. If he listened closely, he could hear the sounds of screeching, then a low rumbling.

“Was that the Demogorgon?” Barb breathed.

“No,” Will answered. He felt like someone had just injected him with a shot of pure adrenaline. His veins were throbbing underneath his skin, pumping and releasing. But it wasn’t to the beat of his heart. They were moving at the same time as the gate. “I’ve never heard that sound before.”

Barb made a wounded sound. “We should go.”

Will nodded and headed away from the tree. He stumbled through a few bushes, confused at how he’d gotten so far into the woods. And then burst through the clearing, startling Steve.

“Jesus Christ!” Steve shouted. He had the nail bat grasped in both hands, raised above his head like he was about to hit a home run or bash a monster’s head in. He had stopped it mid swing and now it was hovering in the air, uselessly. There was a wild look in his eyes, hair mussed up slightly, like he’d been tugging at it in stress. Upon seeing Will, he let out a gasping breath. Relief spread over his features, evident in the way his shoulders sank back down below his ears.

“Are you okay?” Will asked, sincerely.

Steve let the bat fall to his side. He eyed him, dubiously. “What the hell were you thinking? I specifically said not to go out in the woods! I didn’t mention it as an invitation! Jesus Christ!”

Will winced, rubbing his palms together. “Sorry.”

All the anger seemed to deflate out of Steve. He ran a hand through his hair and shot Will a smile. His clothes were ripped from the branches and his shoes were coated in black mud. It was unfair how handsome he was, just standing in the middle of the woods. “It’s fine,” he said. “Honestly, I should’ve known better than to say anything. You kids are like a magnet for danger. I swear to God.”

Will laughed shakily. “That’s true.”

If only he knew how true it was.

Steve’s stomach grumbled. He swung his bat over his shoulder and tipped his head in the direction they’d come. “You want a sandwich?”

Will nodded and sent one last glance over his shoulder. It looked like Hawkins was going to have a lot more problems than just ghosts.

***

The next morning Will made his way into the kitchen with an agonizing headache and about seven blankets from the closet wrapped around him. After Steve had dropped Will off at home, Barb had explained that being around the dead for long periods of time had negative effects on the body. She said it was like their subconscious knew something was wrong. Described it as wandering around a funeral home and getting the feeling that someone was watching you when there was no one else in the building but you and the person in the open casket. According to her, it was a normal evolutionary human response, like the way that people used to be able to tell a snake was near them before they ever saw it. It was his body going into overdrive, a fight or flight response that never fully activated.

He pulled his blankets tighter around him and stalked to the cabinet, grabbing a random box of cereal. Jonathan gave him a long look as he passed him on the way to snag a spoon and a bowl from the cupboard.

“Morning,” Jonathan said, slowly.

Will ignored him and sat down at his place at the table. He slid the milk over to where he was sitting and then poured it into his bowl, the cereal following along behind it soon after. When he was done, he raised a spoonful to his mouth and began chewing, pretending to be deep in thought about something.

Jonathan set down his glass of orange juice. It had a huge pulp floating around in the bottom of it. But he didn’t seem to care. His hair was slicked back and there were little strands falling into his eyes. He was wearing a grey hoodie with a name of some band that he liked on it. And he had Nancy’s bright pink scrunchie wrapped around his left wrist. It looked out of place with the dark circles underneath his eyes and the generally blooding expression plastered permanently on his face.

“Everything okay?” Jonathan asked. There was obviously more he wanted to say. He looked at the blankets pooling around him pointedly. “Did you leave the window open last night?”

Will hummed noncommittally. “It was closed.”

Jonathan blinked. “Is the AC not working?”

Will rolled his eyes. He gestured at himself with his spoon, accidentally flicking milk onto his shirt. “I’m sorry, I didn’t remember agreeing to play twenty questions.”

The floor creaked behind them and the smell of cheap perfume wafted into the room along with the smell of burnt toast and buttery pancakes. He reached up and pressed the knuckle of his index finger against the space between his eyebrows. The perfume smelled like citrus, except it was a little too strong and tangy. He was pretty sure that had been the perfume they’d bought for his mom two years ago at Christmas. It hadn’t smelled great to begin with, but it had been all the money they could part with.

He could feel the look his mom exchanged with Jonathan over the top of his head. She came up behind him and patted him on the shoulder, causing the mountain of blankets to shift, making the top one slide off and plop straight down onto the floor by his feet. He grunted, annoyed.

His mom turned his chin towards her. She looked at him with a mix of worry and bemusement. “Are you feeling okay, baby? Your cheeks are a little flushed. But it might just be the heat.”

Will sighed and peered up at her. He opened his mouth to tell her that he was fine but the words escaped him when he saw the person standing behind her shoulder. He inhaled the last few pieces of cereal in his mouth and then started to choke as they went down his throat too fast for him to swallow. He sputtered and then pounded himself on the chest, holding up a hand to signal that he was fine when his mom started to make a grab for the phone. He made a gagging noise as he felt the cereal settle somewhere in his esophagus and Jonathan reached over and slapped him on the back a few times for good measure. Will coughed and the muscles in his throat relaxed, allowing the rest of his food to slide down into his stomach.

“All good,” he rasped.

His mom stared at him, shocked. “What was that?”

He cleared his throat. “Went down the wrong pipe.”

“I’ll say,” Jonathan said.

Will chanced another look behind his mom and made unwavering eye contact with Bob. He was brighter than Barb was, more youthful despite their ages. The outline around him was fuzzy and blurred around the edges. But it was firm and solid. Compared to him, Barb seemed like a cardboard cutout. Like a picture taken in the dark and not developed all the way. Her reaction time was slow and the bottom half of her body was almost invisible. Whereas with Bob, if Will squinted, he could’ve passed for a real, living, breathing human being. The only thing that gave him away for what he was, was his smile. It wasn’t as genuine. No longer the joyful glint of teeth. Now it was like he’d forgotten how to do it. Mouth stretched open too wide. Eyes dim when they should’ve been sparkling.

“Hey there,” Bob greeted.

Will dipped his head.

He mindlessly swirled around his cereal for a few minutes, listening to his mom and Jonathan talk about mundane things like school or the weather. Until he physically couldn’t handle the longing looks Bob was shooting his mom from across the kitchen, like he was afraid of getting too close to her and then not being able to reach out and touch and comfort. His chair made a high pitched screeching noise as he pushed it back against the tile. He stood up casually, pretending that he wasn’t radiating anxiety as obvious as a flashing red stop sign.

“I’m done,” he announced.

Jonathan checked his watch. “Already?”

His mom frowned. “You barely touched your food.”

Will shrugged. “I’m not that hungry.”

“Okay?” Jonathan ventured. He rubbed at his jaw where a hint of stubble was growing. It made a scratching noise against his hand. “Am I giving you a ride to school today or are you biking with your friends?”

“Dustin’s going with me,” Will assured him. It took some extra effort on Dustin’s part to head all the way from his house to the Byers and then back the same direction to the high school. But none of them wanted Will going anywhere alone, even in broad daylight. And Dustin hated waiting on Mike and Lucas, always complaining that they took too long to get ready. So it worked out well for everyone involved. Though it didn’t make Will feel any less guilty.

His mom didn’t seem thrilled. She leaned forward in her chair, dropping the newspaper she’d been reading to study him, eyes wide and worried. “Are you sure you’re feeling up to it today? I can call the office and let them know you won’t be coming.”

Jonathan tugged at a stray piece of skin on his bottom lip, making blood pool up to the surface. It was a bad habit of his. One that Will had accidentally picked up in elementary school and never really stopped. He swiped a finger over his mouth and wrinkled his nose at the sight of blood. He had a stiffness to his jaw that hadn’t been there a few moments before. It was clear that he was working himself up to something.

“I can stay home,” Jonathan finally offered. He wouldn’t make eye contact with anybody. He had a smile on his face but it looked more like a grimace. “Seriously, buddy. It’s not a big deal. I can just have Nance grab me the stuff I missed in class.”

His mom shot him down. “That’s not necessary. I’ll call in sick and take a day off of work.” She set her hand down on top of Jonathan’s shoulder and gave him a meaningful look. “I’ve got some chores I need to do around the house, anyways. You’ve got to go to English today. Don’t you have that presentation?”

Will shook his head. “It’s fine, mom.”

She deflated upon seeing his stubborn expression. “Call if you need me to come get you.”

He nodded, mumbling a promise. But he was already halfway out of the kitchen. And he missed bits and pieces of Jonathan’s next sentence. Though he heard his voice lilt and assumed he was saying goodbye. So he continued down the hallway, knocking his knuckles against the peeling wallpaper. Once he was in his room, he let the floor fall shut behind him. And just barely resisted the urge to lock it. It was dark in his room and dusty, blinds closed tight to keep the sun from disrupting his sleep. There was a pile of clothes clumped together on his floor at the foot of his bed. His backpack was folded over on the chair at his desk, colored pencils spilling out of the pockets. And there leaning up against his closet was Barb. She was staring wide eyed at a spot just to the left of him.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Barb blurted. She flickered in and out of focus. The bottom half of her body disappeared and then slowly came back into view, desaturated of color. She took a step forward and then froze, halting her movement. “What happened to your chest?”

Bob looked down at himself and grimaced. He was still dressed in the last outfit Will had seen him in. Decked out in form fitting dark blue scrubs, clean and unworn. Not even the slightest bit ruffled. He looked like a normal person, as if he was a nurse on his way to work. Will hadn’t been around to see Bob’s death, but he’d watched it in his own way, screaming and pleading out in the back of his mind, looking through a thousand pairs of eyes all at once. And he’d done more than just watched, he had felt it too. Had crushed his teeth against hard bone. Had heard the quick breathing, the startled gasps and groans, the slick sound of blood as the other Demodogs feasted. He had tasted the sour blood in the back of his throat for days, lingering even as he was sitting in the back row of the chapel at Bob’s funeral, doing his best not to lick the roof of his mouth. Will had seen the gaping hole in his chest, going down into his abdomen. But there wasn’t a single mark on him. His skin was pale as opposed to his sunny complexion. And it glistened unnaturally in the dim lighting of Will’s room. But it was smooth and untouched. He was even missing a freckle against the side of his neck, as though all imperfections had been shedded and wiped away. A clean slate.

Will frowned. “What are you talking about?”

Barb startled, like she’d forgotten he was there. She looked sick, features twisting in disgust as she gestured over at Bob. “Can’t you see that?”

Will blinked, lost. “No?”

Bob wrapped his arms around himself, protectively. His index fingers tapping a short, strangled rhythm against his biceps. He swallowed, throat working. Then raised his chin and brought his eyes up to meet Barb’s. “It’s how I died,” he said. “A Demodog got me. Jumped through the air and ripped a chunk out of my stomach. Knocked me down to the floor and just kept going. I couldn’t move.”

“I’m sorry,” Barb whispered.

“I’m not,” Bob insisted. He straightened up, proud. There was a triumphant smile on his lips. “I’m glad it was me. For the first time in my life I got to be the hero. More than that, I saved the love of my life.”

Will had to breath through his mouth. His whole body was tingling, like he’d just been stung by a bee. He could feel all the blood flooding to his face, rushing through his ears, pounding against the arteries in his neck. Neither of them were paying him any attention. But Will felt like all the eyes in the world were trained on him, seeing straight through to the hollow part of his bones, the empty sac of his stomach where the cereal swirled around in an ugly mix with the mint gum he’d swallowed yesterday, sticking to the walls of his intestines. Judging him for the bags underneath his eyes and the looseness of his clothes around his wrists and ankles. Waiting for the next mistake. He could still remember the look in Mike’s eyes as Will had gotten out of the car that night, free of the shadow but still weighed down by secret demons. The hope and the anxiousness mingled in with the fear and the anger, hidden in the black oceans of his pupils. The way he hesitated before tugging him into a hug. How the rest of his friends swarmed around him, but placed themselves between him and Eleven, a shield of flesh and blood and tired tiny faces.

Will pressed a knuckle against his forehead and tried to steady himself. But it seemed an impossible task. He felt like one of those serial killers on the news that had to walk past the families of the loved ones that he’d killed before sitting at the stand on trial. Except it was a thousand times worse. He was a coward who couldn’t even muster up enough dignity to look Bob in the face.

“And you?” Bob wondered. “Aren’t you the girl that supposedly died from chemical leaks?”

Barb shook her head. “That’s just a cover story. I got taken to the Upside Down the day after Will did. But I never made it out.” She pressed a hand against her neck, rubbing gently. “I don’t remember a lot of what happened. It was all so fast. But it was cold and dark. And it felt like I had been turned inside out. One second I had been sitting in Steve Harrington’s backyard and then the next I was stuck in this world that looked like ours but wasn’t.” She shuddered, eyes glossy and glazed over. It was like she wasn’t even in the room with them anymore, picturing something that no longer existed. “There was this thing. It was shaped like a person but the proportions were off. It would make this awful chattering noise that just reverberated through my entire body. And when it started advancing on me, its face opened up like a flower.”

“The Demogorgon,” Will supplied. He clenched his hands into fists. Barb nodded at him, shakily. “I could hear you screaming, begging for help. It felt like it went on for hours. But I couldn’t get my feet to unstick. I knew I should’ve done something, could’ve caused a distraction and gotten it away from you. But I was just so scared. And so I just sat there, listening until you stopped making noise.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Barb replied.

Will glanced at Bob. “Maybe not that time.”

“Not even then,” Bob professed.

Somewhere in the house, Jonathan was whistling. It echoed through the walls, disrupting the moment with a loud, jaunty tune. The sound seemed to fade in and out covered by the sound of water spraying against dishes and drawers opening and closing. It was serene. A calming background noise, ordinary against the rising eeriness.

Bob broke the sudden silence. He’d never done well with the quiet, said that it made him feel tense and awkward. Back when he’d been around, noise had followed him everywhere he went. He would pick Will up from school with the windows down and the radio blasting, drumming his hands against the steering wheel like he was part of the band. He would sit down to eat dinner and turn the television on, then wouldn’t even watch it. Jonathan used to complain about it, rolling his eyes whenever Bob walked through the door. Though he hadn’t necessarily been part of the family, after he’d died, Will could tell that everyone missed him. Even the house had felt wrong, every creak and groan a reminder, it seemed like the silence was in mourning along with them.

He cleared his throat. “How long have you been here?”

Barb shrugged. “A couple years now.”

Bob let out a breath. “And still nothing?”

“No,” Barb denied. She looked defeated.

“But something must be changing, right?” Will voiced. Both of them turned to look at him, curious. “No one else could see you before. But I can.”

“But why now?” Barb queried.

“I assume it has something to do with the portals,” Bob announced, a little too nonchalantly.

Will jolted. “What?”

Bob frowned. “You guys haven’t seen them?”

“I thought there was only one,” Barb answered. She paused, a thoughtful look on her face. “How many are there?”

“Two,” Bob replied.

Will nodded. “One in the woods.”

Bob blinked. “There’s one in the woods?”

Will’s stomach dropped.

“If you don’t know about the one in the woods,” Barb started. “Then where are the other two?”

“At the lab,” Bob answered. He met Will’s eyes.

“What were you doing there?” Barb urged.

Bob faltered. “I’ve never left. Not until this morning.”

“When you came to me,” Will finished.

***

The sun was just beginning to fully rise in the sky when Will and Dustin arrived at the high school. It was a bright day, lighting up the metal bike racks and bouncing off of car windows. There were hardly any clouds in the sky and whenever the wind blew it blasted everyone with dry heat. The promise of humidity was simmering in the air. Making Dustin’s curls fluff up underneath his hat. Both of their shirts were plastered to their skin, sticking against sweat. As they rolled their bikes up the walkway, a group of kids went running past them, kicking up grass and gravel, heading down to the middle school. Will watched longingly as the group shoved and laughed with each other, screaming cheerfully when they caught sight of Mr. Clarke standing out in the shade.

Will wheeled his bike into one of the racks and locked it with a satisfying click. In the distance, he could hear the sound of a car honking and someone yelling back. He wiped a hand against his forehead and pushed his hair back. Next to him, Barb looked on with an intense expression, eyes caught on two girls walking into the school together, bumping elbows when they squeezed through the doorway. She must’ve felt him staring, because she turned and offered him a small smile. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

“I don’t miss this,” Bob said. He was leaning up against the flagpole, a couple feet away. But his voice carried.

Will tilted his head to show that he’d heard but didn’t otherwise respond. He’d made the mistake of speaking out loud to Barb at dinner last night and had gotten interrogated for an extra half an hour. The last thing he needed was his friends thinking he’d gone crazy again. Even if that’s exactly what was happening.

He was in the middle of scouring the crowd for Mike and Lucas when a shadow fell across him, covering the left side of his face. He turned around and got a glimpse of bright red hair and wide, shiny eyes. She was standing with her arms crossed defiantly, shifting her weight from foot to foot. Her backpack was strapped around one shoulder and he could see papers spilling out of the top of it. One was a picture of some sort, with smudged black ink like she was in a hurry when she drew it.

“Hey Will,” Liz greeted.

Will stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Uh hey.”

She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder, pointing at the entrance to the football field. “Can we talk?”

Will glanced over at Dustin. He was standing at the opposite end of the bike rack, fiddling with his walkie-talkie, yelling into it and then waiting before readjusting the antenna. Completely oblivious to the dirty looks he was getting from bypassers.

“Sure,” Will agreed.

He followed alongside her, trudging past the mass of students scrambling to get inside, narrowly avoiding being smacked into by a guy with long shaggy brown hair with a tattered jean jacket, holding a black lunchbox in his hands, chanting obscenities under his breath. He was oddly familiar. Will was sure that he knew him from somewhere.

Liz led him into the football field and onto the bleachers, climbing to the top. From there, he could see the tips of the trees, a dark green contrasting against the blue shades of the morning sky. It looked like a painting, clouds collecting together in the background, big and fluffy like they’d been dotted onto a canvas with a brush. It was colder higher up and easier to breathe. When the wind blew it rustled their hair and sent a few stray pieces of trash tumbling down underneath the benches, a styrofoam cup screeching as it hit the metal. The consistent noise of cars coming and going was almost nonexistent. Though random laughing and hollering still disturbed their barrier of solitude.

Will took a seat. “What are we doing up here?”

“I didn’t want anyone to listen in,” Liz admitted. She tucked her hair behind her ears. Her eyes were flitting around his face, darting away from his gaze. She wouldn’t sit down, standing with her back to the field, tugging at the bottom of her shirt and twisting it in between her fingers. “It’s kind of hard to explain.”

He frowned, ducking his head to meet her eyes. Her expression was pinched, twisted up in hesitation. When she dared to chance a glance at him, he gave her a kind smile. He knew he wasn’t the most comforting person to be around. He’d overheard Lucas and Max talking about it once. How different he was after he’d come back from the Upside Down. How his eyes were darker and his skin couldn’t hold a tan. How darkness seemed to cling to him, hiding him. While the rest of his friends were lit up. He didn’t need anyone to tell him that there was something wrong with him. He sees it in the mirror everyday. The way his reflection isn’t quite right. Always slightly to the left no matter where he placed himself. Mouth bigger than it really is, with whiter and sharper teeth, like vampire fangs. Face slimmer and longer, ears pointy, like an elf. Eyes a dark brown instead of a colorful green. The way his reflection seemed to stare back at him, like another person trapped in the mirror in his place. A clone. A thief.

He hoped that wasn’t what Liz saw when she looked over at him, eyes timid and hopeful. He wanted her to see the little kid inside him, the person he used to be. The one who did impossible things. The one who broke a glass over his father’s head when he hit his mom, the one who scowled down at monsters and clawed back to the surface to warn his family, the one who loaded up a gun with steady hands and felt safe with it. He wanted to be someone she felt comfortable with. Not scared of. Or worried about. He wanted to be the person for her that he never had growing up.

“You can talk to me,” Will soothed. He relaxed his posture, leaning back on the bench nonchalantly. Letting his hands fall down onto his lap, palms facing up. Intentionally open.

Liz rubbed her eyes. “It sounds crazy.”

Will cracked a grin. “Well you’re in luck. I happen to be kind of an expert in that department.”

“It’s my friend,” Liz finally said. She pulled a folded up piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it over to him. Her face was pale. “She’s missing.”

He unwrapped the paper, slowly. It had a few tears in it. And it was slightly faded like it had been put in the washer or dropped in a puddle. He smoothed it down against his thigh and then looked it over. His breath catching. It was a missing person poster. Almost identical to his. Except it had been typed up and printed out, her name spelled out in a big, fancy font. The picture was slapped on in the middle of the page. It was in black and white but it was clearly a girl. She was sitting down on a stool, against a grey backdrop like she was being photographed. Her blonde hair was curled into ringlets and pinned back in a white lace bow. She was wearing a dress, he couldn’t tell what color, but it had a plaid pattern on it. She was staring straight at the camera, eyes huge and imploring, light circling her pupils. There was a brilliant smile on her face, dimples popping out in her cheeks. She seemed to be around the same age as Liz. About eleven or twelve. Though she looked softer than Will had at that age. Clearly loved.

He swallowed. “She’s the one who fed the dog.”

“Yeah,” Liz confirmed. She hurried to snatch the paper back from him, tucking it up against her chest and cradling it with her arms. She bit down on her bottom lip. “No one knows what happened to her. The police keep telling us to let them handle it. But they aren’t even doing anything!” She wiped a lone tear from her face and clenched her hands into fists. She stared at him, searchingly. “I know everyone thinks that she ran away. I heard our teacher call her a spoiled brat. But that’s not true. She wouldn’t do that. Not… not without me.”

Will put a hand on her arm. “Liz—“

She shook her head, jerking away. “I just didn’t know who else to go to. I mean… this is Hawkins. Nothing bad ever happens here.” She said it like she was reciting it, quoting somebody. “The police told my mom that there hadn’t been a missing child case in over fifteen years. Not until nineteen eighty three. Not until you.” She let out a shaky breath, scuffing her baby pink converse against the ground. “But you came back. Everyone thought you were dead but you weren’t. I don’t know. I guess… I just thought you’d understand.”

“I do,” Will told her. “But Liz, we don’t know what happened to her. If she really did run—“

Liz cut him off. “What if I did know?”

Will froze.

She reached behind her and pulled a paper out of her backpack, it was the same drawing he’d seen earlier, doodled onto a brown piece of cardstock. She had the front flipped over so it was facing her and she was staring at it, intently. When she looked back at him, there was a determined scowl spreading across her features. Despite the glare she was giving him, there was something vulnerable about her, like she was trusting him with her most prized possession.

“I haven’t shown this to anyone,” Liz informed him. “But I think… this has something to do with Minnie.”

Will took the drawing and flipped it over. It was done in green marker. The lines were rushed and squiggly, obviously unpracticed. And parts of it were smeared, most likely from her brushing her hand over it. But the formation was clear. At first glance, it might’ve looked like a facsimile of a man. With long legs and a broad chest. But it was distorted. The skin was stretched too thin over the body. And the hands snarled down into thick claws. While the face wasn’t a face at all. It looked like a blooming flower with five petals opening up, teeth lining the inside like a Venus Flytrap, a thin glob of slobber connecting them.

Will gasped. “Where did you see this?”

She bit her lip. “Last night. I was in the woods looking for Minnie when I heard this weird noise. It sounded like an animal in pain. So I went to check on it.” She pointed at the drawing. Her nails were chipped. “It was bent over something. I thought it was a human. So I called out. But when it turned around it was covered in blood and there was this half eaten deer on the ground. And when it saw me… it’s face—“ she broke off, tears cascading down her chin and wetting the front of her shirt.

He traced the lines of the drawing. His heart was thudding inside his chest, knocking into his rib cage. “And you think this is what took Minnie?”

Liz nodded, mouth trembling. “Her mom saw it the night she went missing. Said there was a man outside their house, just standing in her front yard. But she couldn’t call the police. All the power in the street had gone out.”

He put his head in his hands. “Did anyone else see it?”

“Just me,” Liz answered. “Do you… believe me?”

Will looked down the bleachers at Barb and Bob, each of them looking up at him with grim expressions. Thought about a lightbulb so bright it was blinding. Thought about the feeling of a vine slowly slithering down his throat and the feeling of restraints against his wrists as he thrashed around on the hospital bed. Thought about Max’s agonized screams when the MindFlayer punctured a dozen holes into Billy’s body. And wanted to rip his hair out.

“Yeah,” Will rasped. “I do.”

“You don’t think this is insane?” She demanded.

Will rubbed at the back of his neck. “No.”

Liz blinked at him, shocked. “Why not?”

“Because that thing that took Minnie, is what took me,” Will said, locking eyes with her.

“Took you?” Liz echoed. Her hands were shaking. She yanked them through her hair, frustratedly. “That doesn’t make any sense. Took you where?”

The bell rang before he could answer.

“I’ll explain everything later,” Will told her. “I promise.”

Liz shivered. “You better.”

***

Hawkins Library was a big hulking building stuck smack dab in the center of the town. It had faded red brick walls and a porcelain white arch that hovered over the entrance. There was a slight tower extended onto the side of it with a white clock face placed in the middle and a roof that slanted into a high triangle, like the top of a church. Windows lined the front exterior, cleaned meticulously except for the tiny fingerprints against the bottom glasses. The blinds in the top four windows were shuttered, closed up to prevent the sun from creeping inside and spreading across the pages while people read. The parking lot was small despite it being one of the biggest places in all of Hawkins. And the front steps were cracked down the sides with a sea of black ants swarming around a half eaten bagel dropped right outside the entrance.

Will was stopped a few feet away from the doors, tugging on his backpack straps uselessly. He hadn’t been to the library in years. He used to go with Dustin all the time, scrolling mindlessly on the computers for hours, entranced by the black and white pictures that popped up. It used to be a place tinged with good memories of ruddy cheeks and paint stained hands, friends giggling underneath the tables, and eating sandwiches hidden behind the kids section. But now there was a film of inky darkness leaking out over them, swapping the good for the bad. Because there had been something festering inside the library. Tucked away in a parallel world to his. Where a child’s safe place became a nest for otherworldly monsters. Somewhere out of sight from his friends and family. Filled with hissing vines and green slime that coated his hands like webs. A distorted version of home that should’ve offered love and laughter but instead handed out fear and desperation. The entirety of Hawkins held secret memories that no one else knew about but him.

He was jostled out of his thoughts when the sound of hushed whispers crossed the threshold and morphed into cheering and yelling. Will looked up just in time to see a group of kids trailing down the stairs, pushing and shoving at each other, waving their hands around animatedly. He watched them longingly.

Liz bumped her elbow into his. “You okay?”

She had been waiting for him by the fence after school, tapping her foot impatiently as he approached. He had been hesitant to tell her everything, thinking about what happened to Jonathan and Nancy when they had tried to tell Barb’s parents. When Will had signed the NDA, he made a promise with himself to never breach it. He couldn’t imagine purposefully bringing someone else into the fold, launching them into a fight they didn’t even start. But when the crowd had cleared and he’d seen the determined set to her eyes, he knew there was nothing he could do. There was something so fragile about her, a little girl who talked to strangers and buried dead animals she found in the street, searching for her only friend in the world. But fragile didn’t mean broken. She was brave and scared and angry and soft all in one. Her own tiny person with all the best bits of his friends. Either Will had to help her or she would go off on her own.

It was an impossible choice that he’d already made. So he told her, ignoring the ghosts hovering over his shoulders, watching with a resigned sort of defeat. And she’d believed him, peering up at him with wonder and an emotion that he hoped wasn’t trust. Following alongside him, walking in the same breaks of the sidewalk. Marching into battle with bitten nails and an old teddy bear stuffed inside her backpack.

He admired her for it. Will had never gotten to choose to be brave. Had never gotten the opportunity to put on his armor and prove his love and loyalty for someone. There was a cowardly part of him that wondered if the roles were reversed and his friends had been the ones to get taken away, if he would willingly go after them, forgoing the risks and dealing with demons head on. If he would tear apart his life in the name of something bigger than himself.

He didn’t know the answer.

Will let out a breath and then forged ahead. Somehow ignoring her question and answering it all at once. Liz made a startled noise behind him and then hurried to catch up, water bottle rattling around noisily inside her backpack. Together they trailed up the steps and then ducked through the doors, Bob and Barb materializing next to them, appearing suddenly and without any disturbance. As if they’d always been there, just hanging around aimlessly.

The interior of the library was dark, lit up with dim overhead lights that shook threateningly when the doors slammed shut behind them. The librarian looked up from her place at the front desk and gave them a quick once over, eyes skipping straight past the two extra bodies towering over them. But paused when she glanced at Will, scanning his face with something akin to recognition, before shaking her head and smiling tightly. It was a reaction he had gotten pretty familiar with over the years. Unbothered by the double takes he received when he walked past people on the street. Dustin used to brag that he had a famous friend. Though Will knew that people weren’t staring at him because he was cool or popular. He should know. It was a look he used to get when he’d show up to the first grade with black and blue bruises hidden under his baggy hand-me-down shirts. An embarrassing type of pity mixed with a fascinated sense of wonder, like they couldn’t begin to imagine what he’d done to deserve it.

He gave her a short wave and then pulled Liz along, trudging deeper inside and towards the brown racks stacked from top to bottom with books. Off to the side, a couple of teenagers were flipping through some magazines, eyes red rimmed and tired. It was quiet except for the far away sound of nails clicking against a keyboard. Will rolled his shoulders back and reached up to scratch at his neck, digging his fingers in. There was something tense lingering in the air, a hesitant sort of feeling, a wrongness to the atmosphere. Barb walked out in front of him and flickered once almost violently. When she held up her hands they seemed almost solid. Knuckles flushed with a peach tinted color, veins steadily popping just underneath her skin. She whirled around, eyes bright and wary.

“Something’s not right,” Bob said. His voice was hushed, like he was afraid to speak. “The connection is stronger here.”

Will frowned. The pounding in his temples was back, announcing itself with a throb that felt like an ice pick drilling into the back of his head. He kneaded at the pressure points behind his ears and tried to center his breathing.

Liz bumped her foot against his. “What is it?”

He raised his eyebrows at her. “Huh?”

“You’re acting weird,” Liz told him. She was rubbing at her arms, little pebbles of flesh standing up on end. There was a vibrant flush warming the apples of her cheeks, spreading up to her nose and the tips of her ears. Unlike the rest of her body, which seemed to be rapidly losing its color, changing from a light brown tan to a pale shocky blue. But she didn’t seem to notice it, too busy glancing around suspiciously.

Will pressed the back of his hand against her forehead. She was freezing cold, a bold contrast to the pieces of hair plastered against her forehead, sticky with sweat from the oppressive summer heat. When she peered up at him, she attempted a stern glare, but could barely manage to keep her eyelids open.

He shook her shoulder. “Liz?”

She swayed forward, little hands coming up to grasp at his wrists, holding on tightly. She pressed her face against the bare skin of his forearm and shuddered hard enough to jolt them both backwards. He braced his feet against the ground and hesitantly wrapped his arms around her. Immediately, she shoved closer, pushing her head underneath his chin. He felt frozen, unsure of what to do. His hands were stuck in the air, hovering awkwardly right above the small of her back.

Barb turned to Bob. “It’s here, isn’t it?”

Will spoke aloud. He was standing in the middle of the library with a half conscious kid in his arms. Talking to the air probably seemed like a mild form of normal. “What is?”

“The epicenter,” Bob explained. He eyed the teenagers gathered in the corner, slumped over the table. “I think it’s what’s tethering our world to the Upside Down.”

It made sense. Almost too much.

“Like a portal?” Will questioned.

Barb pursed her lips. “Not quite. The gates are just openings to the world. It doesn’t matter who or what goes through. This is different.”

“Have you ever heard of the Law of Conservation?” Bob asked, waiting until Will nodded. “Think of it like that. The Upside Down is a separate space from our world. But it’s able to create little pockets of time and allow holes to poke through. Nobody knows where it came from or how it came to be. Although in order for it to continue to exist here, it needs to build up enough energy. Kind of like us. We need to eat and drink to survive right? It’s the same way.”

Will considered it for a moment.

Bob went on. “It’s not as simple as creating or destroying the energy from Hawkins.”

“It’s just pulling it away,” Will finished.

“Exactly,” Bob said.

Will looked down at Liz. “But it’s not just taking energy from the town anymore is it?” He chewed on his lip, thinking it over. “That’s why we’ve been having so many earthquakes lately. If all of this time the Upside Down has been sucking little bits of matter. Then how much longer until Hawkins doesn’t have anything left to give? What happens then?”

Barb grimaced. Neither of them needed to spell out the answer for him. He could tell what it was just by taking a look around. Eventually the never ending supply of Hawkins would run out, most likely sooner rather than later. And then the Upside Down would start draining the life from its inhabitants until it was nothing but a ghost town, crossed off the map.

“We need to get her out of here,” Will realized suddenly. “We need to get all of them out of here.”

He spun on his heel and carefully began to guide Liz to the doors, making sure not to step on her feet. She was barely hanging on, stumbling and tripping, leaning heavily against him. When they finally made it outside and down the stairs, his arms were begging for relief. He propped her up against a tree and watched as she slowly came back to awareness.

“Will?” She mumbled. “I don’t feel good.”

He fished her water bottle out of her backpack and held it up to her mouth, letting her drink steadily from it. When she was finished, he slid it into the loose grasp of her hand, tucking her fingers around it.

“It’s okay,” Will said softly. “I’ve got you.”

Her head dipped to the side, resting on her shoulder. She fluttered her eyelashes for a minute before sighing deeply, asleep again. Above them, the tree branches were swaying in the wind, bouncing up and down. A few stray leaves fell from them, landing in her hair gently, dark green mixing with red. She looked like a fairy, face round and full, a mischievous turn to the corners of her lips. He watched as the color began to steadily return to her body, heart weighed down with guilt and worry.

“Hey loser,” a voice said.

Will whirled around. “Max?”

She was standing a few inches away from him, studying him with a judgmental look in her eyes. She was wearing a black and white band t-shirt that he’d seen on El. It went down to her thighs, bunched around the collar like it hadn’t finished drying all the way. The sun was dragging down the sky, floating just above the buildings. It was shining down against one side of her face, keeping the other side cast in shadows. She blinked at him and her iris sparkled.

“What are you doing?” She asked, her skateboard was tucked up underneath one arm. “Aren’t you supposed to be at your nerd club or whatever?”

Will shoved his hands into his pockets. “What club?”

Max raised her eyebrows. “The one with that game you guys are so obsessed with playing?”

“D&D?” Will guessed.

She shrugged. “Sure.”

Will held up a hand to shield him from the sun. It took him a minute to realize what she was referring to. Then he remembered the orange paper stuffed inside his art folder in his backpack. Thought back to the way Mike had gazed at him so hopefully in the middle of the crowded hallway, speaking timidly like he didn’t know Will would’ve given him anything he asked for.

“Is she okay?” Max asked. She sounded urgent. Her gaze was trained over Will’s shoulder. “She looks sick.”

“She’s alright,” Will responded. “Just got a little tired from all the heat, I think.”

Max looked at him like he’d just grown three heads. “So you decided to keep her outside?”

Will cursed himself internally. “Uh yeah?”

She rolled her eyes. “Typical.”

They fell silent for a moment, looking anywhere but at each other, even though Will wanted to badger her with a million questions. She had dark circles underneath her eyes that matched his almost perfectly. And a stiffness in her movements that he’d never seen before, almost as if she was afraid to breathe and take up too much space. He’d never been very close with Max, but he’d always felt a bizarre sort of kinship with her. While all the others had puzzled at her distance, Will had been wishing it upon himself. Aching to be somewhere beyond the world, hidden from sight. A place of solitude. Where he could be a new person forged in trauma and mistakes that no one knew about. He’d tried it once but never made it very far. Sometimes it felt like that during the times he actually wanted space, he would have a line up of people waiting for him outside his bedroom door, pleading for him to eat dinner or to try out Dustin’s new video game. No matter what he did, there was never a shortage of love for him, even when he didn’t deserve it. Especially then.

He could see it in Max now. The loneliness etched painstakingly across all of her features. The sadness that everyone stopped trying to get through to her. For the first time, Will could see the emotion in his eyes reflected back at him, clearer than looking in a mirror.

“Are you okay?” Someone finally asked. For a second he thought it might’ve been him. But it wasn’t.

Will stiffened in surprise. “What?”

She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, twining it back into her braid expertly, in a similar fashion to how he’d seen El practice on hers. Her hands were trembling slightly, like she was nervous, or maybe just exhausted. That’s when he noticed that she didn’t have any nail polish on.

Max scowled at him. “Well are you?”

“I’m fine,” Will allowed.

“Really?” Max scoffed, unconvinced. “Because you look like absolute shit.” She appraised him, radiating skepticism. “No nightmares? No flashbacks?”

“I’m fine,” Will said again. Weirdly defensive. “Nothing even really happened to me last time, okay? I was completely out of the loop for most of it. It’s not like—“

“Like what?” She prompted dangerously.

He swallowed. “You know what I mean.”

Max folded her arms. “I don’t actually. Why don’t you go ahead and explain it to me.”

Will bristled but he didn’t say anything. The conversation was going nowhere. It wasn’t as easy to push back with Max as it was with everyone else. They were both on edge, dancing around the truth but doing their best to pry it out of the other. She’d turned the focus onto him but he could easily turn the tables back around to her. They were at a stalemate, a standstill that neither necessarily wanted to break.

Max took a deep breath. “Look, I didn’t come over here to interrogate you. We’re all just kind of worried about you right now. And I don’t know, I guess I just thought it would be nice to talk to someone that actually gets it.” She fidgeted with her hands, a vulnerable blush staining her cheeks. “I mean, it’s stupid. We’ve hardly ever spoken to each other. But—“

“It’s not stupid,” Will rushed. His fingers twitched at his sides and he clenched them into fists in order to stop himself from doing something embarrassing like reach out and bring her into a hug. “And for the record, I’m not the only one they’re concerned about. I seriously don’t think Lucas can go a sentence without mentioning your name.”

She tipped her head towards the ground, scuffing the white point of her converse. “He’s such an idiot.”

Will bit the inside of his cheek. “So, I know that you're too cool and mature for all of us. And I’m sure you’ve got everything figured out. But how have you been doing?”

Max swallowed. “I’ve been better. Neil, uh, my dad finally left. It’s just me and my mom now.” She stared off to the side, blinking hard. “We moved to the trailer park, so that’s new.”

“Do you miss him?” Will ventured.

“Neil? God no,” Max laughed bitterly. “He made my mom’s life a living hell. I never really understood why she even stayed with him. I mean yeah, we don’t have a lot of money. But we’ve managed without him so far, right?” She visibly clenched her jaw, choked up. “He was such an asshole. I hated him so much.” She glanced at him and then flitted her eyes in the opposite direction. “I used to wish that my mom had never married him. Then I never would’ve had to deal with any of this. I guess I got what I wanted right?”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Will assured her. “There was nothing you could’ve done.”

She shook her head. “It’s funny. When I was younger I used to want a brother so badly. I’d practically beg my parents to let me have one. And then as soon as I got one I just wanted him to go away.” She sniffled, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. “I think he hated Neil the most out of any of us. I think he hated me too. And I thought that I’d convinced myself not to care about him. But I do. He wasn’t a good person but I didn’t want him to die. I just wanted him to change.”

Will rubbed at his eyes. “I’m sorry about your brother.”

Max looked like she’d just bit into a lemon. “Yeah, that’s not really a new thing. People have always sort of been sorry about him.”

“Still,” Will responded.

“It’s whatever,” Max dismissed. Despite the blase comment she seemed a little lighter, like there wasn’t so much crushing weight hanging off her shoulders. “You know you can talk to me about stuff too, right? I mean, maybe not anything that involves Wheeler. But if there was ever something you wanted to get off your chest or something. I’m here.”

It was an opening. A poorly worded, fumbled one. But an honest and genuine one nonetheless. Though Will knew he wasn’t going to take it. He’d done enough to her and her family.

“Thanks,” he said. He gestured at Liz. “I better get her home before she starts throwing up.”

Max looked startled and a little disappointed. “Oh. Right. I guess I’ll see you at school next week.”

It wasn’t until the conversation ended and Max was walking away from him that he’d realized neither of them had smiled the entire time.

***

There were open scrapes on his hands from where he’d braced himself as he climbed out of his window. They were bleeding sluggishly, little black beads rolling around his palms, reflecting the moonlight. He wiped them against his pants and grit his teeth against the burn.

It was a cold summer night, made worse by the sharp wind blowing across his face. The chill was slightly biting, lingering on the bare skin of his nose and the tips of his ears. It was the time of year where the seasons began to switch over. The days were shortened by the hiding sunlight. And the grass was starting to dry, the morning dew freezing against the ground. If he listened closely, he could hear the whispers of fall, a chorus of falling leaves and gurgling water rising in tempo.

Will zipped up his jacket as he walked, careful not to dislodge the rifle slung across his shoulder, bumping against his back every time he moved. He’d stolen it from the locked chest in their shed before dinner and hidden it underneath his bed. There was rust against the sides of it, old and unused. Will didn’t think anyone had touched it since his dad had left. It was a nice gun, with dark cherry wood and a silver barrel. The pistol grip was discolored, with little indents in it the shape of fingerprints. He remembered seeing it laying in the backseat of his dad’s Oldsmobile, always clean and shiny, pristine like a brand new rifle. He’d learned how to shoot with this gun, how to hold his arms, how far apart to brace his feet, the way to keep the release from knocking him over. It was a heavy reminder weighing down on him, a relic from the time when his dad actually loved him.

Bob and Barb were following alongside him, barely visible in the midst of the darkness. When they crossed past a street light, he could see the dust swirl through their bodies, the air misting around their outlines. He could hardly make out the expressions on their faces, obscured by the strange cover of night time. It seemed like the brightest thing in Hawkins was the gleam of Barb’s glasses, as if she were a white eyed creature dogging at his heels. They’d been oddly quiet since they left the library, flickering in and out of focus, sharing meaningful looks when they thought he couldn’t see.

He dug his knuckle into the soft space between his eyebrows, just above the bridge of his nose. It seemed like the headache had only gotten more intense as the day went on. Radiating down to the stiff hinge of his jaw and pulsing inside his eyes. The only reprieve he’d managed to get was when he’d been standing in the middle of the library, surrounded by drowsy kids, feeling the power surging underneath his feet, vibrating at a frequency so high he was surprised no one else had noticed it.

“I think this is a bad idea,” Barb stated. “What are you even going to do when you get to the gate?”

Will shrugged. “I just want to make sure it’s still there.”

“And then what?” Bob asked. “Climb on in?”

Will itched at the scab forming on his palm and accidentally opened the wound again, watching as blood welled up to the surface, streaming down his wrist in watery streaks. He tugged his sleeve over it.

“If I have to,” Will said.

Bob shook his head. “By yourself?”

Will squared his shoulders. “Why not? I’ve done it before haven’t I? At least this time I’d have a gun.”

“That’s insane!” Barb snapped. “You’re gonna get yourself killed. No one asked you to do this, Will!”

“Maybe not,” Will shot back. He was breathing heavily. “But I promised Liz I’d help find her.”

He stopped at a crosswalk, watching a few cars go speeding past him, headlights casting long shadows along the road. A few heads turned to stare over at him, people squinting out the windows, gesturing as they spoke. He kept his head down, shifting to keep the rifle out of view. The last thing he needed was someone calling the cops and Hopper showing up. That would be a whole other mess.

Bob stepped out in front of him and Will was suddenly struck by how much taller he’d gotten. Back when Bob had still been alive he’d practically towered over him. He was shorter than Hopper had been, but he was bigger than his dad, and somehow his presence had been more comforting to Will than either of them. There was something gentle about Bob, a lack of briskness, that drew people to him. He’d always seemed like nothing bothered him. Not the old bullies at school. Not the clown in his nightmares. Not even the Demodogs prowling around the lab. Will never wanted to admit it, but he’d felt safe around him, like nothing could happen to him if Bob was there to shield him. To help him and protect him, not to just stand over him in a time of need, but to stand behind him as well.

Now Will was about the same height as him, with shoulders he couldn’t fit inside his shirts, and a confidence to his walk that couldn’t be faked. Now they were standing opposite each other, one dead and the other alive. A superhero and the thing that everyone needed saving from.

Bob’s eyes were sad. He lifted a hand like he was going to put it on his shoulder but retracted it at the last second, mouth pinched tight. “The responsibility doesn’t fall on you alone, Will. You have people in your corner. You always have. All you need to do is ask.”

Will’s chest twinged painfully. “I can’t.”

Barb frowned at him. “Why?”

He swallowed down the lump lodged in his throat. It took him three tries to displace it completely. He felt prickly with their eyes on him, unexplainably anxious and caught out. His cheeks flushed under the attention. There was a part of him that was irrationally angry. But he didn’t know who it was directed towards. Maybe himself.

“Don’t you get it?” Will whispered. To his embarrassment, there were tears collecting in the corner of his eyes. “I can’t bring them into this. Not after last time. Things are finally normal for everyone. My mom’s happy again. I cant—I won’t drag them into this again. It’s not fair.”

Barb’s face twisted. “It’s not your fault, Will.”

“It is!” He shouted. His words echoed along the pavement, bouncing down the street until they slowly died out, landing somewhere beyond reach. “It is!”

Barb looked taken aback. “Hey—“

“What about Mike?” Bob suddenly asked.

Will blanched. “What about him?”

“He was there with you,” Bob said slowly. “He never left your side at the hospital. The kid basically dragged you out of the building himself.” He smiled faintly. “No matter what happened he refused to leave you alone. You think he feels that way about you? You don’t think if you called him he’d be here in a second?”

His stomach flipped dangerously. He didn’t remember much about what happened at the hospital, only saw it in flashes, in short sequences that changed so fast it made him sick. The things that he did recall were tainted, painted over with a feeling like whiplash. None of those memories were his own. And he didn’t want them. Couldn’t even stomach the thought of it. The way the MindFlayer had played him like a puppet. Using his mouth to talk to his mom. Using his eyes to track Mike’s movements across the room. He didn’t want to think about the MindFlayer being so close to everyone he loved without their knowledge. Watching as they turned their backs to him, baring their necks to a predator of the worst kind.

Will shook his head. “And what am I supposed to say?”

“The truth,” Barb offered.

Except that he couldn’t. Will didn’t think he’d be able to stand the disbelieving look on Mike’s face. Maybe he could handle it from Dustin or Lucas. But he didn’t know what he’d do if Mike laughed it off and disregarded him. Will knew that their relationship had been strained but he wasn’t that willing to test the limits yet. He didn’t want to prove that everything he’d been fearing was right to himself.

Didn’t want to be going crazy alone.

He headed across the street, mind made up. Bob and Barb scrambled to follow, shouting out protests. But eventually they stopped, dutifully trekking behind him, becoming almost entirely transparent as he entered the woods.

It was darker traveling underneath the trees without the streetlights and the blinking open signs from stores guiding the way. He had to pull out his flashlight and turn it on in order to see where he was going. He glanced backwards, hesitating once, twice. And then forged in deeper, ignoring the startled look on Barb’s face as he did so. He could feel their apprehension behind him, ramping up his anxiety with every step.

The woods were silent around them, almost eerily so. He could hear no sign of owls or mice in the fields. Even the wind had slowed down, barely brushing against the trees. The only audible sound in the clearing was Will’s fast paced breathing.

He leaped across a fallen log and then sweeped the area with his flashlight. It looked unfamiliar. He thought he’d been going towards the portal behind Steve’s house in Loch Nora. But he must’ve gotten turned around at some point.

Will fished around in his pockets and then brought out his compass, the metal was cool in his palm. He stuffed the flashlight between the corner of his teeth and angled his head down at the compass, trying to see which direction he’d gone in. Except it wasn’t working. The arrow was moving around like a spinning clock, never once settling in a specific spot. He stared at it, aghast. Then he shook it, smacking it against the muscle of his thigh. When he squinted at it again, the arrow was aimed towards the East, and it didn’t move.

He cleared his throat. “Hey Bob?”

“Yeah?” He hedged.

Will titled his hand towards him and tried not to let his panic show. “You don’t happen to know anything about compasses do you?”

Bob leaned in closer. “Well—“

A noise in the distance cut him off.

Will went stock still.

Barb scooted towards him. “What was that?”

There was another noise, louder this time. It sounded like an animal, chattering at itself. But he couldn’t be too sure. He remembered how Liz had described the sound the Demogorgon had made. How she thought it was an animal in pain.

He dropped the compass back in his pocket and slowly reached for the rifle along his shoulder. He grasped it with one hand and brought it around so the barrel was facing the front. He opened his mouth to ask Barb to hold the flashlight for him, but realized that she’d be unable to.

“Will?” Barb whispered.

Will didn’t answer. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and crouched down to the ground, resting his fingertips against the dirt, checking for footsteps. It was a trick he’d learned from his week in the Upside Down. He could tell how big the thing was coming at him based on how hard the earth shook. He cocked his head and stood up, letting the rifle swing against his side, strap sliding down his arm.

A chipmunk broke through the trees, chittering at them loudly, before it raced off, darting in between Will’s legs, tickling his ankle with its tail.

Bob let out a sigh, visibly releasing tension.

But Will didn’t relax. He shined his flashlight on the ground and saw a trail of bugs making their way towards them, all in one line. Barb screeched and backed away, letting a large beetle buzz over the fallen log, wings flapping as it took flight.

He glanced down the hill where the chipmunk had come from and leveled his flashlight into one of the bushes. There was something in there, rattling around in between the branches. He took a step closer and his flashlight flickered, blinking out.

That’s when he heard the purring.

Will turned on his heel and ran just as something roared and leaped out from behind the bush at him. He hurtled past the log and took off, darting in a zigzag pattern, desperately rushing out of the clearing. There was a loud cry from behind him and he turned his head, trying to search the darkness. But he was moving too fast. Everything was blurry. He swiveled back around just in time to catch his cheek against a low hanging tree branch, scratching him from the corner of his eye to the bottom of his mouth. Wincing, he pushed it back and ducked underneath it. A few beats later he heard it connect with something with a thick smack.

The flashlight was flickering in his hand, lighting the ground up and then taking his sight away. Frustrated, he hit the button and clicked it off. It wasn’t doing anything but alerting the thing of his whereabouts.

Will’s legs were burning. He didn’t know where he was. He had just started to slow down to try and orient himself to his surroundings but sped up when he felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. Rounding a corner, he darted through a pathway of bushes, stumbling over plants and twisted roots.

His eyes had finally adjusted to the dark just in time for him to skid to a stop, sending rocks flying over the edge and off the cliff. There was a tiny splash and he chanced a glance down to see a sparkling body of water.

Pivoting, he threw himself to the side. Only to land against something cold and wet. He jerked backwards and slime stuck to his cheek, coating one whole side of his hair in dark goop. He wiped a hand down his face and stared at the familiar wetness sticking his fingers together. Will tilted his head up, gaping when he saw the monster standing in front of him, big and lanky like a human body, with protruding collarbones and long fingers extended with sharp claws. And a blank face with even sharper teeth, opened up like petals of a flower.

Will screamed.

The Demogorgon threw its head back and let out a rumbling growl, spittle flying everywhere. Then it leaned back on its haunches and pounced.

Will dashed backwards, throwing his hands up.

But nothing happened.

“Go!” Barb demanded.

She was standing in front of him, glowing a sickly green color, hair standing up on end. She had her hands out, like she was warding off the beast.

She looked terrified.

“Go!” She hollered again.

Will sprang to his feet and sprinted further into the forest, heartbeat pounding away in his eardrums. The rifle strap slid the rest of the way off his arm and he caught it in between his middle and index fingers, reflexively. He stashed his flashlight inside his pocket and fumbled to get the rifle within his grip. His hands were slick with sweat and slime and something else that looked like green mucus. But he managed to get a strong enough hold on it.

He came to an abrupt stop in the clearing and placed his body halfway behind a tree, hiding in plain sight. Then he raised the rifle up and planted his feet, taking the safety off and cocking the gun. His body was shaking so bad that he couldn’t keep his aim steady.

The Demogorgon came bursting through the trees and Will didn’t hesitate. He fired off a round of shots, not even checking to see if they’d hit the desired target. One bullet bounced off a tree and sliced a fresh layer of wood from it, sending splinters out towards him. He cocked the gun again and stepped out from behind his hiding place, exposing himself fully. The Demogorgon seemed confused, whipping its head back and forth, unsure of where to watch. Unfortunately, Will hadn’t managed to hit it yet. He needed a clearer vantage point.

Will whistled.

Over here you son of a bitch, he thought.

He let it advance towards him. It was stalking towards him at a measured pace, muscles in its legs shifting and bulging. As it creeped forward, slobber dripped down from its teeth and puddled on the floor.

Will raised his chin and kept waiting.

He counted in his head, eyes trained on the vulnerable spot in the middle of its face, soft and red. And when the Demogorgon was about a foot away from him, Will’s finger twitched against the trigger.

He shot a round off just to the left of it.

The Demogorgon snarled and jumped forward and Will pressed his finger down hard, feeling the release radiate down his whole body, vibrating his teeth. It landed right in the middle of its face, sinking deep in an explosion of tissue and bone. Immediately blood began to spurt out of it in an arch of bright red liquid.

It swatted out blindly and knocked the rifle out of his hands, tossing it about ten feet away. Surprised, Will fell backwards, knuckles stinging from where it’s claws had caught on his skin. He could feel the blood gushing down his fingers, dripping onto his pants. His whole body was throbbing, he was pretty sure he’d pulled a muscle in his calf.

Will rolled up to a sitting position, staring at the Demogorgon warily, afraid to move. It was in a similar state as him, writhing around on the ground, jolting and kicking, letting out small grunts of pain. Suddenly it stopped, freezing in place. Then it shot up, spared Will one last glance, and vanished.

“What the hell,” Will mumbled.

Cautiously, he stood up. As soon as his right foot touched the ground, a hot wave of agony radiated up towards his knee and down to his toes. He shifted and put most of his weight onto his left side.

A voice rang out in the distance.

Grimacing, Will reached down and pulled out his flashlight, turning it back on and pointing it towards the direction the voice had come from.

“Hello?” He called, voice rough and hoarse. Apparently he had screamed more than he had originally thought.

Bob and Barb appeared in his periphery. They looked shell shocked, gazing off at something in the shadows, eyes wide and amazed. He swiveled his flashlight towards whatever it was, but he didn’t see anything.

“Will?” Someone asked.

He flinched, whirling around.

El was standing across from him, shining a flashlight straight at him, head tilted questioningly. Her hair was pulled up in a messy ponytail, bangs hanging down and sticking to her forehead. She was dressed in a purple sweater with bright blue jeans that swam around her ankles and dragged over the front of her yellow converse. There was a weird look on her face, half confusion and the other half horror.

Oh, he thought.

That’s what had scared the Demogorgon off.

“What happened?” El urged.

Will rubbed at the wound on his cheek. “Got lost.”

“No,” El rebuffed.

He frowned. “No?”

She took a step forward, shaking her head. “There is something wrong with you.”

Will felt like he’d just been kicked in the stomach. All the breath he’d just regained deflated out of his lungs. “What?”

El pressed her hand on his chest, scowling like she could see straight into the mushy parts of him. Her fingers curled around the collar of his shirt. “Sick.”

“Sick?” Will repeated.

She glanced over at where Bob and Barb were standing. But there was no recognition in her eyes. “You are not whole anymore.”

Will wet his lips. “What are you talking about?”

El took her hand back. “You tell me.”

Will opened his mouth but when he caught sight of who was standing behind her shoulder all the words he wanted to say seemed to evaporate.

“Heather?” Barb blurted.

Heather Holloway was standing in the darkness between a circle of trees, feet on the edge of the light that Will’s flashlight was making. When she raised her eyes up to meet his, half her face caught the light, making her pupil shrink while the other remained dilated, bathed in darkness. She looked almost too good to be true. Cheeks full and rosy, like she’d just plastered blush on. He could even see her bare feet scrunching against the grass, affecting the world around her. He had thought that Bob seemed life-like but he was nothing compared to her. If Barb was a cardboard cutout, Bob was a hologram.

She was wearing a cherry red swimsuit with black sunglasses propped up on her head. And she was absolutely soaking wet with little water droplets falling off her skin and disappearing into thin air.

Heather swallowed. “Barbara Holland?”

“Will,” El implored. “You need to come with me.”

***

Chapter Text

Jonathan was peering out at them from behind the window, fingers pushing down the blinds in order to see through them. There was light haloed around him, bouncing off the glass and spilling onto the ground, throwing the long walk to the cabin into high definition.

El had her hand enclosed in his, clasped in a firm grip. She had dirt smeared over her cheekbones and flecks of mud dotted across her shoes, slowly bleeding into the fabric, staining the yellow an ugly green. Every so often her eyes would dart towards Will and then to the left, just behind his shoulder. Where a trio of friends with familiar faces hovered, whispering to each other anxiously. Heather was practically glued to Barb’s side, hunching in close to the other girl, eyes hazy. He still didn’t think that she could see them but he was pretty sure she could sense them somehow. Like a sixth sense for the supernatural.

Together they crept up the steps, El leading the way. He took notice of a small cactus placed inside a cracked brown pot with little sideways sunflowers painted onto the side of it. There was a piece of duct tape slathered across the top with a note written in bold blocky letters, clearly Hopper’s handwriting. It read: “DO NOT WATER. YOU WILL KILL IT.” Will shook his head, chuckling. Before they could reach the door, El paused, glancing over to give him a sly smile.

“Watch this,” she said.

She relaxed her shoulders and took a deep breath. He could feel her muscles pull taught in her forearm where it was pressed against his, tension stringing the lines of her body. Even the earth seemed to heave, wind halting violently before picking up even faster and harder, the song from the crickets promptly petering out. Deliberately, she raised her chin. And the doorknob twisted, clicking and hissing when the locking mechanism released. Then she tipped her head to the side, blowing the door open with a low groan.

“Your powers,” Will stammered.

El wiped the blood from her nose with a pleased expression, despite the fact that she seemed more weighed down than she had prior, slouching forward.

“I have been practicing,” she crowed.

Hopper was standing just inside the doorway, eyebrows raised and arms folded, looking down at them with an unimpressed expression. “Really?”

She scrunched her nose at him and pulled Will inside, kicking the door shut with her heel. Immediately he was barraged with the smell of smoke, intertwining with the odor of rich perfume and a pine needle candle melting in the corner. His mom was pacing back and forth between the coffee table and the couch, socks dragging over the hardwood floor, cigarette hung loosely between her index and middle fingers. There was an ashtray set out, filled with steaming ends, billowing towards Jonathan. He was lounging against the wall, hands curled in his pockets. A pinched set to his mouth as he raked his gaze over the slime and sweat and blood congregated over Will.

There was a draft in the room, coming down through the tarp covering the hole in the ceiling. Most of the cabin had been refurbished, including new flooring and carpet, a fresh paint job, new tiling, and a great big television that Hopper refused to start up. All courtesy of the government of course.

“Where have you been?” His mom demanded. She rushed towards him, wrapping him up in a warm hug. Discreetly, trying to check his body for wounds, running her hands over his arms and patting at his back. Will tucked his face into the junction between her shoulder and her neck, blinking back hot tears.

Hopper gave him a stern look. “What happened?”

He untangled himself from her, rubbing at his cheeks. “It’s hard to explain.”

“I’m not asking,” Hopper corrected. He gestured at the rifle tucked behind his back. “Obviously there’s something going on that we don’t know about.”

He grit his teeth.

“Will?” Jonathan prompted.

When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to tell them anything, Hopper let out a loud sigh. “Look kid,” he said, visibly reigning in his temper. “We aren’t accusing you of anything, alright? But you’ve gotta realize how bad this looks.” He started counting on his fingers, naming things off one by one. “You’re skipping school to do God knows what, sneaking out your window at night, avoiding your friends, being secretive with your family. And now this? Where did you even get the gun from?”

“I have a good reason for all of that,” Will mumbled.

“Which is?” Hopper drawled.

Will threw his hands up in the air. “Is this an interrogation?”

“Does it need to be?” Hopper countered.

His mom put her hand on his arm. “Hop—“

Will scowled. “How did you even find me anyways?”

“I did,” El said.

Something twisted angrily in his stomach. He felt trapped, cornered. Everyone was staring at him with big, worried eyes. And he couldn’t handle it. The last thing he wanted was to be another problem for them to solve. Rationally, he knew that he should tell them about what had been going on. But there was a bitter part of him that wanted to fix it all on his own. To look at Hopper and Mike and El and show them that he’s capable of being a hero. That he wasn’t just some poor, useless little kid that went around stumbling into trouble.

Even though there was a bigger part of him that was screaming and crying for help. That knew he was being selfish. Leaving them unprotected and unaware. Vulnerable at the worst possible time. He might as well have been twelve years old again, strapped down to a hospital bed, guiding the soldiers with gentle hands and sending them off to their deaths. He could see his mom’s face clear as day, cringing away from him with tears in her eyes, betrayal evident in the droop of her lips. He wondered if she would look at him like that again when she found out that he’d lied. If he rejected the better side of himself and tried and failed to save the day, allowing monsters to roam free in Hawkins, turning a blind eye to the people dying on the street, grey and sunken, stripped free of all their energy. Used to power something monstrous that Will had the ability to stop.

He shuddered.

But when he opened his mouth to let it all spill out, he found that there was something preventing him from talking, blocking his voice box like there was a hand wrapped around his neck, squeezing harder the more he coughed and wheezed and tried to speak.

“Are you okay?” Jonathan asked.

Will closed his eyes, resigned. “I’m fine.”

“Lie,” El said.

“What?” He croaked.

She wrapped her arms around herself. He hadn’t even noticed when she’d slipped her hand out of his. There was a guarded look on her face. “That is a lie. I saw you in the void. You have caught a sickness. And it is taking from you.”

His mom went pale. “What kind of sickness?”

Will’s heart was pounding.

El sobered. “He is not whole.”

“What does that mean?” Jonathan pressed. He took a step closer to Will, wrapping a hand around his shoulder. Visibly distressed. “Not whole?”

El scowled, seemingly struggling for words. “There are pieces that are gone.” She shivered, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. Her gaze was distant, as if she was seeing through the wall and into another world. “In the void, there were shadows… sticking to you. They were bad. Dangerous.”

Bob stiffened.

“What are they doing?” His mom pressed.

“I do not know,” El confessed.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Jonathan said. He shook his head rapidly, dispelling her words. “We blocked off all the connections to the Upside Down. The MindFlayer is gone. Nothing can happen to him. Not anymore. Right?”

Will’s tongue was heavy in his mouth. It felt like there were cotton swabs stuck behind his molars, drying out his mouth, sealing his jaw shut. He didn’t know how to tell them that there was always going to be a part of him trapped inside the Upside Down. That the MindFlayer had torn a hole inside of his heart and inside of his brain. How he’d gone digging through all his memories, plucking out the important ones, watching the others with misguided interest. That no matter how hard he scrubbed, his skin would never feel like his own again, even when it was red and cracked and broken. He’d been split open completely. Laid bare. And he couldn’t get his life back.

None of them could.

“How do we stop it?” Hopper asked.

Everyone was looking between him and El. Their expressions didn’t change outwardly. But he could feel the weight of their expectations. Noticed the way that Hopper’s hand twitched towards the gun hanging on his belt when Will made any type of movement. Saw the way that El seemed to transform from a lost, little girl with messy bedhead to a strong, confident warrior. His mom was staring at her with hope and desperation warring in the pools of her eyes. There was a visible difference to the way they treated them, Will realized. While El might’ve been the same age as him, she was always going to be far more adult, more trustworthy, more knowledgeable, more independent. He knew his family loved him, but he was far from the perfect daughter that they had got to choose.

Even to his family, he was second best.

El rubbed at her nose. “I do not think we can.”

Jonathan blanched. “It’s not going to hurt him is it?”

“Is that why he’s been acting so weird?” His mom asked, careful in her wording but not careful enough.

Will pushed Jonathan’s hand off his shoulder and stepped away from all of them, putting his back closer to the edge of the room, towards the door. He was bristling but trying not to show it.

“Why does it matter?” Will snapped.

His mom reached for him. “Because we care about you, honey. We want to make sure you’re okay.”

He tugged at his hair. “No you don’t!”

“Will!” El pleaded.

His mouth twisted into a helpless snarl, hiding a sob. “No you don’t,” he spat.

Hopper frowned. “Of course we do!”

“Really?” Will threw his hands out in exasperation. “Then why do you only care about me when it’s convenient for you? No notices that there's something wrong unless I’m missing or halfway dead. Let’s be real, no one of you want anything to do with me or my problems unless it gives you the opportunity to play savior!”

El’s eyes filled with tears. “What?”

“That’s not true,” Hopper denied.

“Yes it is,” Will argued. There was a burning sensation clawing at his chest and up his throat, vibrating through all of his bones, rising in crescendo. “I mean, like what, you think this is a new thing? All the dodging conversations and the lying? I’ve been doing that since I was eight years old!” His entire body was trembling, little quakes that wracked through him. “And I get it, okay. I do. You’re all so goddamn busy. With your jobs and your parties and your fucking boyfriends!” He waved a hand out at El. “But even in the quiet moments, none of you notice.”

His mom looked like her heart was breaking.

Will turned away from her, eyes burning. “I don’t know, maybe it’s just easier or something. To pretend that everything’s fine. Like we all got what we wanted.” He cleared his throat, shoving down the emotion that threatened to bubble up. “Like we’re not all walking around on eggshells. Afraid to talk about anything that actually matters! I mean, why would we? Everyone’s always just so unconcerned and unbothered until it ends up killing someone!”

Jonathan was gaping at him, cheeks flushed with color. The type of shocky pink high on the face that meant he was attempting to hold back tears. “You don’t believe all that, do you?” He tugged his jacket tighter around him, like a barrier between him and the rest of the world. “I mean, come on. You know that’s not true, right? Of course we love you, buddy.”

Will shrugged.

There was a fine line between loving somebody and choosing to actively go out of your way to show that you care about them.

Hopper visibly softened his features. “You want to talk about something that actually matters?” He spread his arms out. “Well we’re right here, kid. You just gotta let us in.”

Will shook his head. The problem was that he wanted to talk about everything but he had nothing to say. He could shout until his voice was hoarse but he’d never manage to get anything worthwhile out. All the hurt had been buried deep down a long time ago.

“Nothing, huh?” Hopper said, disappointed. He glanced at the rifle hanging around Will’s shoulder again. Eyes settling on it with a large amount of trepidation. “Well then how about I talk and you can do the listening? Since you’re so keen on keeping quiet tonight.” He put a protective arm around his mom. “For starters, how about we circle back to where you got that gun from? And while we’re at it, why don’t you tell me whose blood that is?”

Will smiled, incredulously. He pulled the gun off his shoulder and tossed it on the ground. It skidded across the floor, coming to a stop at Hopper’s feet.

“It’s my dad’s,” Will bit out. “And don’t worry, I didn’t shoot anybody with it. That’s your job, not mine.”

His mom opened her mouth to say something but he didn’t want to hear it. Fed up, he turned on his heels and flung the door open, heading out into the night. Ignoring the frantic calls coming from behind him, the loudest one belonging to El, staring at him from the porch, hand outstretched. With light casting down and highlighting the scared expression she was wearing.

***

“What was that?” Bob thundered.

Will waved him away and focused on Heather. After everything that had happened, there hadn’t been any time to talk to her. She was watching everything with wide eyes, still glued to Barb’s side. He never realized that the two of them had been friends. Had always assumed they ran in different social circles. But gauging from the stunned look on Barb’s face, she was surprised by her new companion's sudden clinginess as well.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

Heather blinked at him. “Yeah, sorry. It’s just sort of a lot to take in all at once.” She stepped on a twig and her foot went straight through it. “I can’t remember the last time I even had a conversation with another person.” She smiled, bittersweet.

Will was strangely curious about her. He knew it was different but he’d never met another person that had gone through what he had with the MindFlayer. There were a million things he wanted to ask. Now that he had time to actually process her presence, he was almost uncontrollably excited. It was like he’d been going through life unable to see color while everyone could and now he’d finally found someone that he could relate to. Someone that knew what it was like to be completely exposed. To have all your most intimate thoughts and feelings tampered with by a being that treated humans like a means to an end. He wanted to stop time and just sit and spew questions at her.

“Where have you been all this time?” Will prodded.

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

Barb raised her eyebrows. “He means where have you been stuck at? I know you only died recently, so you probably haven’t been able to move around much yet.”

Heather flickered in and out, similar to the others. Except when she came back, her image was distorted. For a second he could see the blankness to her eyes and the sagging gray skin, the melted goo that had once been her hands and feet, mouth bared open in a silent scream. Then as soon as it had come, it vanished. And she was back to normal.

Bob sent a startled look towards Barb's way.

“Heather?” Bob prompted.

“I don’t understand,” Heather said. She looked confused. “Have you guys always been here?”

“Since we died,” Barb clarified.

Will felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. “Have you not?”

“No,” Heather said, slowly. She flexed her fingers over and over again, like she couldn’t trust what she was seeing. “This is the first time I’ve had a body.”

“What?” Bob breathed.

Will came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the road. He wasn’t too far from Hopper’s cabin and the street lights were few and far in between. It was silent all around them. Not even the wind was blowing. When he looked back he could see a trail of indents in the mossy grass, weeds and flowers smashed in his wake. Will’s heart lurched to his throat. He wondered how hard it would be for someone or something to track him. Covered in disguise of darkness. Nervously, he swung his head around, searching. But it seemed like time itself had paused. It was an eerie feeling. If it weren’t for the entourage of people behind him, he would’ve felt like the last person in the entire world.

He regretted leaving his gun behind.

“If you weren’t here,” Barb said softly. A look of alarm shining in her bright eyes. “Then where were you?”

Heather rubbed at her arms, as if she was cold. He watched as a trail of water trickled down her neck, running alongside a large vein, pooling in the dip of her collarbones. “I don’t think I was anywhere, really. It was like I was trapped between worlds somehow.” She pushed her hair back from her face, droplets spraying out towards them and then disappearing in thin air before they could land. “There was this empty place. It was cold and dark and no one else was around. But I could hear things; people. But no one could hear me.”

“The void,” Will gasped.

She peered at him. “You know it?”

His jaw tightened. “Not me.”

Bob folded his arms, clutching them tight against his stomach. He had a thoughtful look on his face. “If you’ve been stuck inside there all this time. How did you get back out?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. One second I was wandering around and then I was in the woods. With you guys.” She bit her lip, tugging at it with her teeth. “Is that not normal? I mean, do you know why this is happening? This isn’t… the afterlife is it?”

“We think it has something to do with the Upside Down,” Barb told her.

“The what?” Heather blurted.

Bob shifted uneasily. “You don’t know what that is?”

She hesitated, hands curling into fists. “It has something to do with that… thing. Doesn’t it?”

Will nodded. “It’s where he came from.”

Heather waved her hand around. “And all of you are involved in this?” A thought seemed to strike her. “Was that what happened to Billy?”

“In a way,” Barb acquiesced.

“So what now?” Heather asked. Despite being the youngest one around, she directed the question at Will. “How do we move on?”

Will flexed his hand around his grip on the flashlight. His entire body was clammy. When he breathed in and out, he could feel his ribs contracting against his chest, popping like he’d pressed down on a joint. His head felt like it was blown full of helium, barely resting on his shoulders. There was a strange floating sensation in his limbs and every time he moved he could feel his knees wobble precariously.

He yawned.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Bob finished.

Heather seemed to reluctantly accept it. She flickered in and out, the red of her swimsuit darkening for a split second, little arms branching out underneath the material like a flower blooming. Then it was gone. He looked around at Bob and Barb but neither seemed to have seen it.

“Do you know—“ she broke off. “Do you know if my parents are okay? I can’t… I feel like something bad happened to them. But I don’t remember what.”

Will closed his eyes, doubled over with a strong sense of deja vu. The situation was heartbreakingly familiar. It was what the MindFlayer did when he had you in his clutches. He invaded and forced you to the outskirts of your own mind, taking over the driver's seat and shoving you into the back, an unwilling passenger watching the numbers on the speedometer rack up, screaming out the window but unable to roll it down. In some ways it was a mercy to not have access to the memories. To not know what your body did and said while you were under.

There were days where Will woke up from nightmares, covered in sweat and shaking violently. But unable to recall what had made him that way.

And there were other days where the loss of time felt like a hot poker searing deep into his tissue. When his mom mentioned something funny that he’d done in those few days and he didn’t know how to tell her that it hadn’t been him. When Nancy avoided him in the hallway on her way out of Jonathan’s room, gaze sticking to the left side of his body, just above his hip, an unspoken apology permeating the air, even though when he pressed against it, he didn’t know what it felt like when he’d gotten it. When Lucas was overjoyed that Max and El had finally become friends but Will never thought that they weren’t.

“I’m sorry,” he croaked.

No one spoke the rest of the way home. And for once, Bob seemed like he wanted to dissolve into the silence.

Will knew the feeling.

***

Will stared at Mike from across the driveway. He was leaning against Jonathan’s car, walkie-talkie held up towards his mouth, thumb frozen on the button. He was dressed in a dark blue coat and black jeans with a white beanie that was smashing his curls flat against his head. There was light spilling out from around him, shading his face in murky brown darkness. Though Will could tell that he was surprised by the stiffness of his spine. As Will had rounded the corner and crept up the sidewalk, he had heard Mike’s frantic voice shouting something harsh into the walkie-talkie. Offset by the gentle sound of El, speaking warmly but urgently. Mike hadn’t heard him until Will was standing at the end of the driveway, hovering by the mailbox unsure what to do with his facial expressions.

Mike jolted. “Will?”

Will raised his hand in greeting. “Hey?”

“Where have you been?” Mike demanded. He took a jerky step forward, like his body was being tugged on strings. “Are you okay?”

Will shoved his hands into his pockets. He checked behind him but there were no lights on inside the house. Half the blinds were still cracked open and he could see colors splashing around on the floor, flickering steadily from the television. There was bright green paper stuck to the door, looped around the doorknob with an elastic band. Apparently his family had been gone for quite some time.

“What are you doing here?” Will asked. His voice was rough and low. When he spoke it scratched his throat. “Where’s everybody?”

Mike folded his arms. “They’re all out looking for you.”

The walkie-talkie crackled to life, cutting through the tension in the air. Someone was talking into it but their voice was garbled. Mike startled and raised the antenna, trying to get a better signal.

“Hello?” Mike said.

“We checked the library,” Lucas responded. He sounded out of breath. “He’s not there, man!”

Mike gave him a pointed look.

“I don’t know where else to go,” Lucas said. A car horn honked in the distance and Max shouted back angrily. “Dustin already went to Castle Byers and Steve hasn’t seen him at the Arcade. El said he didn’t have his walkie-talkie with him but it wouldn’t hurt to try, right? Do you want to call or should I?”

“It’s okay,” Mike assured. He hurried to add onto his statement before Lucas could interrupt him. “Let everyone know that he came back home.”

“No shit?” Lucas breathed. “Is he alright?”

“I’m fine,” Will called out.

Max audibly released a relieved sigh. “What the hell is wrong with you, asshole. We’ve been freezing our asses off for like an hour.”

Will cringed.

“Do you need us to head over there?” Lucas asked.

“Thanks guys,” Mike declined. He hadn’t taken his eyes off of Will for the whole conversation. “But we’re good. I’ve got him.”

Lucas and Max chirped their goodbyes, the latter sounding less happy and more aggravated. He could hear Lucas saying something to her about hanging out before he completely took his finger off the button. Will couldn’t help the small smile that played across his lips.

Mike cleared his throat. “Well?”

Will kicked at the ground. “How long have you been standing there?”

“El called me about an hour ago,” Mike said. He was fidgeting with the zipper on the bottom of his coat, pulling it up to the top and then yanking it back down. “She was pretty worried. We all were.”

Will rubbed at his eyes. He really didn’t want to do this right now. He was tired and sore and his heart still felt like it was running circuits around his rib cage, knocking against his sternum relentlessly. After the night he had, he deserved to be able to take a nice hot shower and then climb in bed and pull the covers up so high and tight that it was almost suffocating. Looking at Mike, shivering in the middle of his driveway, freckles hidden underneath his rosy cheeks, was not good for his mental state. Especially not now. Will had no clue where they stood with each other. And he might be able to stand lying to his mom and to Jonathan. But if he ever lied to Mike, he’d probably spontaneously combust with guilt.

“It really wasn’t that big of a deal,” Will said. Bob pulled an exasperated face at him and he resisted the urge to make one back at him. “You guys didn’t need to do all this.”

Mike huffed. “Uh, yeah we did. Do you have any idea what it felt like to get that call from El?” He picked at his nails, irritably. “With everything that’s been going on? There’s a missing girl out there, Will! You can’t just do that to me! Not after the last time, okay?” He was visibly worked up, chest rising rapidly. “I thought something bad had happened to you! The way she sounded—“

“Mike—“ Will broke in.

“Never do that again!” Mike ordered. He tore the beanie off his head and waved it at him, shoving a hand through his hair, sending stray curls springing up.

Will held up his hands in surrender. “I won’t.”

Mike looked at him unimpressed. “See you say that. You say that. But you never actually mean it.” He flung his hands out, gesturing at him. “You’re always making stupid promises that you can’t keep.”

Will gaped at him. This was ludicrous. “Name one promise that I haven’t kept!”

“You keep leaving!” Mike burst out. He practically shouted it. If the outburst took him by surprise, he didn’t show it. “Everytime I just get you back you end up leaving again. And it was fine at first, I guess. With the Upside Down and the MindFlayer. Like at least then we knew how to bring you back. But now there’s nothing taking you away but you still aren’t here. And I can’t figure out why. I’ve racked my brain trying to understand what’s going on with you but I just don’t get it! We’re supposed to be best friends but lately it’s only felt like that on my side of things.” He pressed his fingers against his eyes, mouth twisted in despair. “I know things have been hard. And we lost a lot of people this summer. But ever since that day it’s like we lost you too.”

Will couldn’t breathe.

Mike looked up at him, expression painfully open. “Today when El called me all I could think about was how the first two times you were gone you at least knew there was something to come back to.” He smiled, sadly. “And now? Honestly, I think you’d rather stay gone.”

Will blanched. “That’s not true.”

Mike scoffed, though it sounded watery. “Maybe you’ve been distant with all of us lately. But we’ve got eyes, Will. And I know you. Even when you’re actively trying to stop me.” He wiped his nose, sniffling a little bit. Will was distraught to think that Mike was standing five feet away and pouring his heart out, crying over him. “I wish you would just talk to me again. Even if it’s about how you think the sky is fucking purple or something. Just come back and be here with me.”

Will loved him so much it almost felt unbearable. He’d been alive for fifteen going onto sixteen years and had never met someone that got him quite like Mike did. It was infuriating. How he could just look at him and say all those things and be one hundred percent correct. How he could be so unintentionally charming, trying to fix something that he hadn’t even broken. After this, he wasn’t sure how he was meant to simply pass by him in the hallway and pretend this had never happened. Acting like nothing was wrong when Mike could pluck every third thought of his head and know it was all a big fat lie.

Will sighed. “Okay.”

Mike paused. “What?”

“Okay,” Will shrugged. He’d never been good at denying Mike of anything. “Do you want to come in?”

Mike stared at him, lost. The tip of his nose was bright red from the cold and his hair was starting to droop, black curls dangling in his eyes. There was a large tear in his jeans, uncovering a white bony knee. His coat was a little too big for him and it was puffed out extra in the arms and hanging down past his waist. He looked like everything Will had ever wanted.

“Do I—“ Mike swallowed. He coughed into his fist, awkwardly. All his earlier bravado had seemed to blow away in the wind. “Uh yeah. Absolutely.”

Will took a few steps forward into the light. His keys were suddenly heavy in his pocket, burning a hole into the side of his thigh, digging into him sharply. Mind going a thousand miles a minute, wondering what they would talk about, if he’d left any incriminating drawings out in his room, how to keep him from asking any important questions. But it all came to a lurching stop when Mike’s loud gasp rang through the air.

“What the—“ Mike surged towards him.

Will flinched backwards instinctively. “What?”

Mike followed him, hands hovering between them. His eyes were flitting around Will’s face, settling on the space between his eyebrows and then dancing away, scanning over somewhere down by his mouth and then hurrying along. Finally, he reached out and swiped his thumb over the scrape on Will’s cheekbone. It stung slightly. Although Will stayed still.

“Jesus,” Mike whispered. The rest of his fingers landed on his face, immediately tracing a line from the bottom of his ear to the corner of his mouth. He seemed transfixed. “You’re covered in blood.”

“Am I?” Will questioned. He hadn’t realized. That was probably why Hopper had been so freaked out.

Mike’s other hand came up to rest on his shoulder, pulling him in closer so he could look at him. It was resting on the crook of his neck, thumb dipping down to press on his collarbone, sending shivers down his spine and then back up again like a feedback loop. They were close enough that Will could count individual eyelashes. He squirmed in his hold, unsure of how to proceed. Since Will’s growth spurt, it had put them at more of an equal height. Though Mike usually still had a few good inches on him. But now he was bent down, putting his mouth centimeters from Will’s own. Everytime he exhaled, Will could feel it land against his mouth.

“Mike,” Will stammered.

“Is this yours?” Mike asked.

Will blinked in order to refocus his eyes. “Huh?”

“The blood,” Mike clarified. “Is it yours?”

Will shrugged. It was either his or the Demogorgons. But he didn’t really think now was the time to drop that specific bomb on him. “Uh yeah.”

“If I ask you what happened,” Mike began. His gaze was locked downwards, eyes big and dark. “Are you gonna be honest with me?”

“Define being honest,” Will answered. What on earth was Mike looking at? Was there some wound on his chin that he didn’t know about?

Mike sighed. “Can you at least tell me if you’re okay?”

Will definitely felt like he was going to pass out. But he was pretty positive that it wasn’t from the blood loss. “No, I’m good.”

Mike looked like he was considering something. His mouth was pinched tight like he was holding back. “You’ve got…”

“Yeah?” Will ventured.

He brought his thumb towards his mouth and wet it like Will had seen his teachers do when they turned a page while reading. Then he brushed it against the corner of Will’s mouth, rubbing it gently. Expression full of an emotion he’d never seen before. Soft and content.

Will had never been more aware of his body before. He could feel the heat radiating off of Mike, palm warm against the bare skin of his neck. When he flexed his hands, he accidentally bumped the silky material of Mike’s coat, a nice touch against his bruised knuckles. All the aches and pains he’d been ignoring came roaring back to life with a vengeance, like each of them wanted Mike to give the area some attention.

“Um,” Will blurted.

“Sorry,” Mike said. He still hadn’t moved his thumb. Just letting it casually set Will’s entire face on fire. “There was some blood stuck there.”

“Right,” Will agreed.

Mike’s thumb swiped over his bottom lip and Will’s brain went offline. He grasped Mike’s wrist in a loose clasp, not preventing him from moving, just hanging on for dear life.

“You bite your lips a lot,” Mike informed him. Like that had been the reason he’d done it. As if it was purely a clinical concern. “You should borrow some chapstick.”

Will’s mouth was tingling.

Mike looked at him, desperately. He seemed to be waiting for something, a signal of some sort. Will didn’t know what it was or how to give it to him. He just stared back at him, blankly. Afraid to give away too much. But nervous to keep too much to himself. Did Mike regret what he just did? Should Will?

He wet his lips and Mike’s eyes traveled back down.

Barb coughed behind him and Will was yanked back into reality. Suddenly reminded that there was a captive audience watching them. Seeing everything they did and said. Including whatever that had been.

He stumbled backwards, startling Mike.

“Will?” Mike asked.

“We should head inside,” Will said. His pulse was beating against his throat, like it had been trying to escape and jump right into Mike’s hands. “Don’t want to worry the neighbors or anything.”

“Oh,” Mike responded. He let it linger for a beat. Then he nodded, tilting his head towards the porch. “Good idea.”

Together they made the short walk up the rest of the driveway and to the front porch. Will fished his keys out of his pocket and opened the door, ducking inside with Mike at his heels. It was dark in the house and only slightly warmer than it had been outside. He fumbled around the wall for a light switch and flipped it on, throwing the living room into high definition. Behind him, Mike bumped the door shut, slowly slipping his shoes off at the welcome mat. Will did the same, feeling a hot lump swell up in his chest at the sight of their shoes lying next to each other. Just like they always had since they were five. He could still remember when Mike had green dragon crocs that he’d worn around and called alligator shoes. Despite the many times that Nancy had attempted to correct him. Will had been so jealous of those shoes, so much so that he’d spent weeks upon weeks begging his parents to buy him some. Of course, eventually he had forgotten all about them. But he’d still gotten a pair of them inside an old shoe box at Christmas. They were a little run down, with a suspicious looking skid mark on the toes. But they had been perfect. Even though the next week at school Mike’s own had been noticeably absent.

Will led Mike through the house until they reached his bedroom. They’d barely passed the entrance when Mike was tugging his coat off, mumbling curses under his breath. Meanwhile Will stuffed his flashlight into a drawer and dropped his keys onto his desk, peaking at him out of the corner of his eyes, a fond smile spilling over his lips.

“Shut up,” Mike said.

“I didn’t say anything,” Will pointed out.

Mike rolled his eyes. He was hovering awkwardly in the corner, doing his best not to seem like he was taking everything in. Will plopped down on his bed and allowed him a few minutes to check it out. Not much had changed since July. His walls were still the same old sunflower yellow. And his carpet still had dark spots from where Chester had peed in the house. The only thing that was different was the lack of pictures and posters on his walls.

Mike frowned. “Where’s all your art?”

Will curled his fingers around the edge of his bed. There was a smear of black goo around his left wrist, traveling up and over the sensitive side of his palm. He rubbed it off against his pants.

“It’s in one of those folders,” Will said. Directing Mike’s attention over to the mess on his desk. “I think I put most of it in the blue one.”

Mike’s jaw tightened. “Why?”

Will smoothed a hand down over his hair and ended up pulling out a clump of dark grass. He wrinkled his nose and dumped it into the trash can. “I don’t know. Just grew out of them, I guess.”

Mike seemed weirdly upset. He trailed his fingers over the blue folder, almost reverently. Looking to Will for permission before opening it. Parsing through the papers, he occasionally pulled one out to observe it, working out the wrinkles as he went. He came across one of the Party as their respective D&D characters and a crease formed in between his eyebrows.

“I waited for you,” Mike said. At Will’s inquiring look, he continued. There was a timid brittleness to his voice. “At Hellfire.”

Will deflated. “Mike—“

He shook his head. “I made Eddie push it back a whole hour and a half. I just kept telling him that you’d be there.” He smiled, self deprecatingly. “I think everyone stopped believing me after the first fifteen minutes. But I was so sure that you’d make it. I ended up looking like a total idiot. We didn’t even manage to get more than halfway through the start of the campaign before Steve showed up to take us home.”

Will closed his eyes. He felt like the worst person alive. Not only had he flaked out on his friends again, he’d yelled at his family, and made his mom cry. And it had all been for nothing apparently. Because Minnie was still in there and now Liz was part of something that she never should have been. He hung his head.

Mike plowed on. “And the worst part wasn’t even that Eddie was pissed at me. It was the look on Lucas and Dustin’s faces. Like they pitied me for expecting another outcome. Like they somehow knew more about you than I did.”

“I am so sorry,” Will rushed. “It totally slipped my mind. I didn’t even realize what day it was. I’ve just been—“

“Busy?” Mike suggested. He ran a hand over his mouth. An annoyed glint in his eyes. “Yeah, so you’ve said. It was your excuse only the last three hundred times you skipped out on me.”

Will bit his lip. “I really did forget.”

Mike shrugged, brushing it off. “Just another broken promise to add to the list.”

Ouch.

Will winced. “You could’ve called me.”

“What’s the point?” Mike asked. It seemed like a rhetorical question. “Why would I call if you never answer?”

Will pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, folding himself up. Everything Mike was saying was true. He deserved it even. But it still stung. Felt like he was purposely going around and throwing dirt in all his wounds. If the roles were reversed, Will would’ve been much angrier much quicker. That was for sure. He was almost impressed with Mike’s patience.

“Have I really been that bad of a friend?” Will asked.

Mike looked away, features drawing up tight. He seemed conflicted, like he didn’t know how to make it any more painless. But the silence was an answer all on its own.

Will nodded. He’d been prepared for it but it didn’t prevent the dull ache from spreading into a wildfire of hurt. Settling around the lining of his heart, burning and squeezing like a snake slowly slithering around it. He rubbed at his sternum, fighting back a fresh stream of tears. He wouldn’t cry in front of Mike. Not about this. Will did it to himself. He didn’t have the right to be sad.

He blinked hard. “Maybe you should go, Mike.”

“Hold on—“ Mike said, bristling. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean it like that, okay? It’s just—all of us have been bad friends lately, right? Like it’s not the same as it used to be. I was a total douchebag last summer and Lucas is super involved with sports now. And I think we might’ve accidentally pushed you and Max away?”

Will shook his head. “It’s not like that.”

Mike walked over and dropped down onto the bed next to him. He was ringing his beanie in between his hands, nervously. “Yeah?”

“It’s nothing you did,” Will told him. He bumped his knee against Mike’s, halting his movements. “We just need some time to process things.”

“So do the rest of us,” Mike grumbled. “We all went through it together, you know. You don’t have to act like the weight of the world is on your shoulders all the time.”

Barb mimed writing down notes. Even as a ghost she managed to come across as smug and self satisfied.

Will tapped his fingers against his shin. “It’s not the same thing, Mike.”

“How is it not?” Mike prodded.

“It just is,” Will mumbled.

Mike stared at him, concerned. He reached out and set his hand over the top of Will’s, squeezing. It was oddly familiar. “This isn’t your fault.”

Will flushed a bright, cherry red. “That obvious, huh?”

“Maybe not to everyone else,” Mike concluded. He rolled his head onto his shoulder, looking at him from underneath his eyelashes. “Just to me.”

Well fuck.

They let the statement hang in the air. It was quiet inside the house except for the fan buzzing away in Jonathan’s room and the laugh track coming from a show on the television. There were crickets outside the window, chirping across the yard at each other. Exhausted, Will fell backwards onto his mattress, letting his legs splay out in front of him. After a moment of deliberation Mike joined him, leaving about an arms length of space between them.

Will studied the ceiling intently.

“This is awkward, right?” Mike laughed.

“Totally,” Will conceded.

Mike turned on his side, pillowing his hands underneath his cheek, facing Will. He was chewing his lip thoughtfully. “How have you been?”

Will flicked his eyes over to where the trio of ghosts were hiding, having a hushed conversation in the hallway just outside his room, blending in with the shadows in the corner. Bob was explaining something with a great amount of gusto, flinging his arms all over the place, expression animated. While Barb and Heather stood close together, listening to him with raised eyebrows. He thought back to the break in Heather’s voice when she asked about her parents and the overwhelming relief on Barb’s face when he called out her name. Pictured the way Bob trailed his mom around the kitchen, smiling a terribly sad smile when he found the picture of her and Hopper on the fridge. Remembered helping Liz bury the dead dog in her backyard, crouching behind the bushes whenever her dad strolled past the window.

“Pretty bored,” Will confessed. He cracked a silent grin.

“Well yeah,” Mike answered. “I haven’t been around.”

Will rolled his eyes. “How humble you are.”

Mike sighed. “Really though? Max said she saw you at the library earlier and you were being sketchy.”

That was quite an accurate conclusion. If he had accidentally stumbled upon Dustin hanging out underneath a tree with a half conscious middle schooler, talking to the air and generally creating a scene at three o’clock in the afternoon, he would’ve been weirded out too.

Will wrinkled his nose. “I thought I was being normal.”

Mike’s eyebrows twitched. “That’s overrated.”

“And what about you?” Will petitioned, changing the subject. “El said she had a great time on Thursday.”

Mike burst into peals of laughter. “That’s ironic.”

Despite himself, Will smiled as well. Mike’s energy had always been infectious. It’s what made him such a great leader. “Why?”

“That’s the night we broke up,” Mike said. He was picking at his nails again, avoiding eye contact.

All the humor drained out of him.

“What?” Will sat up straight in bed. He leaned down to get a good read on Mike. He couldn’t decide if it would be better or worse for him to be sad. On one hand, if he was upset, Will would have to console him about a relationship he had despised with his entire soul. But on the other hand, if he was unaffected, Will didn’t know if he would be able to suppress the flood of hope that would come streaming in. “You’re joking!”

He wasn’t. It was obvious by the embarrassed down turn to his mouth. The way his spine had gone stiff.

“It’s okay,” Mike assured him.

“How is this okay?” Will choked.

Mike shrugged. “It was mutual.”

“Mutual!” Will screeched.

Mike grabbed him by the back of the shirt and pulled him back down onto the bed. “Not going to lie, I think you’re more traumatized by this than we were.”

He shoved him away. “Be serious!”

“I am,” Mike said. He took a deep breath like he was hyping himself up for whatever he was going to do next. “For once, I am being serious.”

“But what about El?” Will demanded.

“She brought it up actually,” Mike ran a hand through his hair. His gaze was heavy. “We both agreed that we’re better off as friends.” He swallowed, flexing his hands against the bedspread. “We really did love each other but just not in the right way.”

“The right way?” Will echoed.

Mike flushed. “I mean, we were kids when we got together, you know. I think we had all these expectations about what a relationship should be like and pressured each other into trying to fit in a role.” He paused, gathering his thoughts. “Being somebody’s boyfriend should be easy. Not suffocating. And I don’t know. I guess I just realized that what I had wanted from her was…”

He was enraptured. “What?”

Mike coughed. “What I had wanted from her was something that I already had with someone else.” He didn’t look away from Will. “This person has always meant a lot to me. They’re one of the best people I know. Kind to the point of selflessness. Smart, even though they take themselves for granted. And you should see the things they create. They’re crazy talented.” He seemed to be inching closer, slowly invading his space, mucking up the covers with his elbows. “And that smile? You wouldn’t believe all the things I used to do just to see a flash of it. Cause wow.”

Will’s mouth was dry. “They sound nice.”

“You think so?” Mike asked, eager. There was a sweet rush of blood pooling in his cheeks. “This person has a frankly mind blowingly frustrating aversion to praise. Like I can’t even get the rest of my words out without them shutting me down. And it drives me up the wall because I just want them to know how loved they are. Because sometimes I don’t think they realize how special they are to everyone.” He swallowed. “And I think part of that is my fault. Because I’ve taken them for granted and didn’t always make sure that they knew that they were the best thing that ever happened to me. No matter what, they’re always going to be my best friend.”

Will’s breath caught. He wondered if it would be strange if he reached over and pinched himself. Mike had never uttered a name but Will was getting the impression that they both had figured out who it was. Even though there was no way that he could possibly be talking about him.

Would it be rude to ask Mike if he had hit his head recently?

“Mike—“

The rest of his sentence was cut off by the sound of the front door opening and feet pattering in.

“Will?” His mom shouted.

Great timing, as usual.

Mike stood up, panic flashing across his features. He scratched at the back of his neck. “I should probably get going.”

Will bit his lip. “Yeah.”

Neither of them moved.

“He is in his room!” El called, voice getting closer. Her footsteps were light, almost soundless. She tended to walk on the tips of her toes, stepping around all the creaks on the floor, body in a straight line. In another life, she could’ve been a dancer.

“Are those Mike’s shoes?” Jonathan asked.

“Um,” Will said.

Mike threw his thumb over his shoulder. “Your family probably wants to talk with you.” He grasped the doorknob, twisting it around. “I’ll see you at school though, yeah? We can finish our conversation then? Unless you don’t want to?”

Will cleared his throat, stumbling to his feet. “Yeah—I mean well—I’ll uh, be there.” He rocked back on his feet, flustered. “Available. To talk. So. We can do that.”

Somewhere in the world Max Mayfield was facepalming so hard without a clue why.

Mike sent him a smile and a pair of finger guns. “Cool.”

El threw the door open and sent Mike tripping out into the hallway. She barely avoided getting smacked in the face by his flapping arms.

Her face was comical. “Mike?”

He caught himself on the wall. “What’s up?”

She scowled at him, disapproving. “Door stays open.”

Mike blinked. “What?”

El put her hands on her hips. “Three inches.”

Oh God.

Will buried his face in his hands, mortified.

***

“This is it, right?” Liz asked.

There was a large gate splitting open the charred remains of what had used to be Starcourt mall. It was hidden halfway underneath a pile of rubble, stuck in between crumbling cement pillars. The floor around it was cracked and bumpy, parts of dirty tile flooring curled up over the ground like a wave pulling back from the tide. It was glowing a vicious dark red, intercepted with orange lines throughout the middle of it, like horizontal prison bars. Tinting Will’s white tennis shoes an evil maroon. If he looked close enough, he could see the slight lifting and falling movement of it, mocking the motion of breathing. Curled around the outside of it were jet black vines, slithering around in a circle, occasionally sticking out of the group and snapping at the walls, marking them with thick green liquid.

Will maneuvered himself between the gate and Liz. Uncaring if he was being subtle about it or not. The back of his neck was throbbing in tune with the inhalation and exhalation of the portal. Almost as strong as when he’d felt the MindFlayer.

“How did you find this?” He whispered.

He had woken up that morning to the sound of his window being pulled open, hesitant at first and then louder and all at once. Along with the chill of fresh outside air and a small wide eyed face staring down at him, perched over the side of his bed. She’d been excited about something, practically dragging the sheets off of him and wrestling them onto the floor, demanding that he got up and followed her. Originally, he’d been reluctant to go, thinking back to the threats that had followed his mild disappearing act the night before. Though she didn’t cave in, chattering nonstop about her lamp and the street lights, poking at him tirelessly.

Apparently there had been a power outage at her house last night around eleven thirty. It started with the television completely cutting out, antenna sparking with blue twinkles. And then got increasingly worse when her dad tried to make a snack and the toaster exploded, raining down spare parts all over their kitchen. Taking inspiration from his story about his friends hearing him over their walkie-talkies, she had attempted to do the same for Minnie, hiding in the basement with her mouth pressed against the receiver. Eventually paying attention to the lamp flickering on and off in the corner whenever she asked a question. From there, Minnie used the lights to lead Liz out of the house and down the street, guiding her straight to the portal.

It made Will weirdly jealous. When he’d tried to do the same and communicate with his mom and Holly, it had brought the Demogorgon right to them. Which meant that for whatever reason, the monsters were either unaware of her, or electively choosing to ignore her. He wasn’t sure which option was better.

“Now what?” Liz asked. She was bouncing up and down, radiating energy. There was no trace of fear on her face, only pure and unrestrained elation. “We’re going in there, aren’t we?”

“We aren’t doing anything,” Will answered. He gripped her by the shoulders and steered her away. “You’re going back home.”

Liz dug her feet in, petulantly. “No.”

He softened his voice. “Look, I know you want to help out. But this isn’t a joke, okay? You could get seriously hurt.” He ran a hand through his hair, at a loss for words. “It’s not like our world. It’s dark and cold and confusing. You would be lost down there.”

“So?” She demanded.

“I survived there for a week,” Will reminded her. “I know the layout, how to get around, where to hide.” He side eyed a stray vine creeping closer, hissing lowly. Waited for it to strike out and shatter a piece of glass before continuing. “Minnie’s been in there for six days. How long do you think she can go without food or water? If you go down there with me, it’s going to take us longer to find her and get her out. Do you feel comfortable with that? Because I don’t.”

It was harsh but it needed to be said. Lucas always used to complain that nobody would let them help find him, saying it was unfair to make them wait on the surface, not having any contact. And maybe even a year ago Will would have agreed. But now, looking down at this kid with baby fat still on her cheeks and the sides of her ribs, he felt responsible for her and her well-being. She was so young. Too young. No one ever should have to experience what they did. And maybe he was biased, but Liz was too kind and too smart and too bright to have her spirit doused by the other, meaner side of the world.

She rubbed at her eyes, fighting back tears. Mouth twisted off to one side, prolonging the start of a pout. “But she’s my friend.”

Will’s heart clenched. “I know.”

Liz tugged on the bottom of his shirt, pointedly. Her eyes were glossy but she was doing all she could to glare menacingly at him. “You have to save her. It’s up to you. I have no one else to blame if something happens to her, okay?” She pulled her sleeve down over her fingers and wiped under her nose, sniffling. “She’s my person. I need her. I can’t live without her. Don’t you have someone like that?”

He crouched down to her level. He couldn’t imagine himself ever being that small. “I’ll get her out and bring her right here back to you. As long as I’m there, nothing is going to happen to her. I promise.”

She spit into her hand and held it out. “Shake on it.”

Will raised his eyebrows, amused. “Do I have to spit on my hand too?”

Liz frowned. “I thought this was a thing boys did?”

He laughed and held out his pinky finger. “I don’t know about most boys, but I think that’s pretty unsanitary. Would a pinky promise suffice?”

She slipped her pinky around his, clutching it firmly. Her face was flushed. “I guess if you want to be girly about it.”

Will pulled away, rolling his eyes.

“I don’t know how you’re supposed to get through that thing,” Liz told him, gazing at the portal. Lip curled in disgust. “It looks like jello.”

He bit his lip. “I guess I’m just gonna dive in it.”

“You guess?” Liz repeated, judgmental.

“I’ve never actually done this part before,” Will said. He scratched the back of his neck, awkwardly. “What do you think?”

“I think it would be best to take a running head start,” Liz informed him. She was staring at the gate with a great amount of concentration. “How are you going to come out the other end?”

He gave her a weird look.

She huffed. “Like are you going to crawl through that thing and end up falling through the sky? I don’t exactly know how physics works in another dimension.”

Will shrugged. “I hope not.”

“Imagine if you crack your head open,” Liz said. Obviously finding it funny. She paused when she saw the look he was sending her. “That would be terrible.”

He sighed and tossed her his walkie-talkie. Now she had him more worried about what would happen if he split his head open than the monsters prawling around. She caught it at the last second, fumbling with it.

“What’s this for?” She asked.

“A back up plan,” Will answered. He showed her how to change the channel and what button to push to talk. “If you don’t see me in an hour, you call for help.”

Liz clutched it to her chest. “So I can stay?”

Will scrunched his nose. “Don’t touch anything.”

She rolled her eyes. “You sound like my grandma. Is that what I have to look forward to when I get old?”

He ignored her, heading for the gate. Despite the pain in his neck, almost doubling in intensity.

***

The first thing he noticed was the cold. It was bitter inside the Upside Down. If he had taken a thermometer with him, it probably would’ve read somewhere below twenty degrees celsius. He thought he had remembered what it really had been like, but the memory was nothing compared to the reality. His skin felt like someone had torn off a layer of tissue and then dunked him in the ocean next to an iceberg. He finished pulling himself out of the portal, arms flexing as he unstuck his legs and swung them around. His breaths fogged in the air.

The next thing he noticed was the darkness. There was no difference between daytime and nighttime in this place. He had read books before that described how prisoners kept track of the passing days by scratching tally marks onto the walls. But when Will had been trapped, he had nothing that indicated how many hours or days or weeks had gone by. To him it had felt like three months. Three months without his family, without a bath, without seeing the sun.

Many people talked about Hell with fear in their voices, like God could overhear them. But Will had actually been there and he knew that God wasn’t listening. Or at least, he hoped that he wasn’t. Because his prayers had gotten considerably more chastising as the week had dragged on.

Will tore off a piece of his shirt and wrapped it around a tree branch, using it as a marking place. Then he moved on, stalking along the edge of the forest. He found it strange that the spot where Starcourt had been seemed nonexistent in the Upside Down. Just miles and miles of trees and clumps of white grass with mutated plants growing. He never strayed too close. Who knew what type of radiation he could be exposed to. He’d heard enough horror stories from Hopper about cancer to ever want to go through it.

When he finally broke through the clearing, he hesitated before stepping out onto the road. It was nerve wracking enough not to be able to see the full picture, unsure of where possible adversaries could be coming from. But it was a million times worse to be out in the open, where you could see everything and in return everything could see you. He took a deep breath, looking across both directions, like his preschool teacher had taught him. Except he doubted that she ever thought they’d be using it for anything other than to watch out for cars. But the same concept applies for monsters.

He forged ahead, pulsing rabbiting in his chest so hard that he could hear the lub dub of it in his ears. His entire body was locked stiff, fingers trembling violently. Will had never regretted leaving his gun at Hopper’s more than he had now. Not that it did him any good the last time.

A white spore floated down from the sky and landed on the top of his nose. Immediately, he brushed it off. Though it was too late, his face was burning up. He pulled the hood up on his jacket, tucking it down over him. Covering his body but also blocking parts of his vision from view.

He sneezed into his elbow and then froze in panic. But nothing moved. The cars parked on the edge of the street stayed there. And no Demodogs came bounding down the street, spitting and snarling. So he kept going, conscientious of his footing. Once while he’d been running away, Will had crushed a vine under his heel and had almost been strangled to death by a pit of them.

It was when he reached Liz’s house that he heard the first sound other than his own panting. A deep, inhuman, chittering. Like a hundred voices laughing at once, slowed down to make it echo. The sound the Demogorgon made when it had found its prey. Will caught a flash of a flowered head sticking out around a house and hurried to duck underneath the car in the driveway, easing his way onto the ground. There, he squeezed all his limbs towards the midline of his body, preventing any part from being discovered. Then he slowed his breathing, quieting it almost to the point of lightheadedness.

He watched as the Demogorgon advanced towards his position, sniffing the air like a dog. It was larger than the one he’d fought in the woods. More recently fed. With huge shoulders and feet that stomped on the ground and made vibrations shudder up his cheek. It traveled across the lawn and then stopped just before the driveway, tilting its head. Scenting.

Will stopped breathing.

A distant part of him was glad that he forced Liz to stay behind. There was barely enough room under the car for one person, let alone two. He was terrified right now, just lying there and waiting for it to leave. He couldn’t imagine what he would have felt like if he not only had himself to worry about but a little girl as well. Would he have been brave enough to put his back to the Demogorgon and risk sacrificing himself for her safety? Would it have been worth it?

He knew the answer to only one of those questions.

Another chirp came from further down the road. The Demogorgon instantly perked up, body language relaxing, fading from the intensity of the hunt. It talked back, grumbling and screeching. And the other one responded in a series of grunts and barks. A Demodog then. Will went to make eye contact with Bob, but realized that he hadn’t seen them since he’d arrived.

His heart rate skyrocketed.

Eventually it lured the Demogorgon away, bringing it down the street by a destroyed stop sign and then around the corner, jumping over the top of a lone car. Will closed his eyes, thumping his head back against the floor, hands aching from where they’d been clenched against his sides. Then he rolled out and stood up, lightly making his way up the rest of the driveway and into the house.

He wanted to call out in search of Minnie. But knew firsthand how good a Demodogs hearing was. It would hear even the slightest creak of a floorboard from two or four blocks away. And that was the thing about Demodogs that made them so dangerous; they had excellent hearing and they hunted in packs. Attacking from every angle, going for the soft spots to debilitate and hinder.

The house was darker on the inside. Almost unrecognizable from the real thing. With stained, half eaten carpet. And vines twisting around the railing to the upstairs, flicking their tails at each other lazily. The windows had all been covered up, either by frost or by weird green moss. It smelled like mildew and rust. With a hint of something sour and musty that belongs strictly to the Upside Down.

He pulled his shirt up over his nose and carefully made his way up the stairs, occasionally skipping a step when a vine lashed out, squirting black goo. Once he was on the second story, he went about and checked inside every room, looking in closets and underneath beds. When he reached the end of the hallway he came to a stop in front of the last room. With its door slammed shut.

Will turned the doorknob, barely daring to poke his head inside for fear of what he’d find. But there were no monsters nesting in there, swarming around and flocking together to kill him. Instead there was a tiny, pale little girl sitting with her legs folded, huddling tightly against the side of the wall, shivering underneath a wet blanket.

She startled when she saw him, flinching backwards and slamming her head into the dresser. He stayed where he was, holding his hands up in a show of surrender, keeping his expression calm as possible. The last thing he needed was for her to go running and screaming out into the woods. Not that she seemed to be in much shape for exercise.

“Minnie?” He mouthed.

She nodded, eyes swallowing up all the light in the room, dilated to the point of blocking her irises. Her hair was matted to one side of her face, swamped in clear liquid. When she shifted, one of her legs slipped out of the blanket, showing bare feet. He bit back the curse that threatened to fall out. Walking around the Upside Down was difficult enough. How had she been doing it shoeless?

“Are you here to help?” She mouthed back.

He nodded and she visibly released all her tension. He gestured for her to stand and she followed his lead, catching the blanket before it fell onto the ground. She placed it gently back against the bed, fingernails lined with dirt and grime, bone protruding from her wrists. When she was done, she tiptoed her way over to him, tilting off to the side. Once she was in touching distance, Will clamped his hand down around her wrist, feeling for a pulse.

They stared at each other.

“Are you okay?” He asked, still not speaking aloud.

She gave him a thumbs down and then pointed to her feet, miming getting cut and then bleeding. He could see the blood smeared along the arch of her foot. Along with dirty yellow pus leaking out of the other.

“Infected,” Minnie mouthed.

He cocked his head. “Can you walk?”

She made a so-so gesture.

Will ground his teeth together. He hoped the wound was old enough that the smell of blood had dissipated. But he’d never been known for his luckiness. Maybe it would’ve been do-able if the gate had been closer. But it was about five miles away, longer depending on how much weight she could manage to put on her feet. And that’s assuming she didn’t accidentally step into anything that agitated the cut. Even a drop of blood and they would be screwed.

Turning around, he patted the back of his thighs. It took her a minute, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and jumped, hanging onto him. He raised himself up, bent over a little bit with the extra person. But this would be faster than their other options.

By the time they finally broke out of the house, Will was sweating, biceps shaking with the strain. Regardless, he continued down the road, refusing to look back. Minnie had her head tucked down into his neck, sending out soft, uneven puffs of air. She was freezing cold, fingers chilly against his throat. And when he tilted his head and glanced down, her lips were bright blue, like she’d just eaten a slushie. He sped up, picturing the look of joy on Liz’s face, the proud clasp he’d receive on the shoulder from Hopper, the awed croon to Dustin’s victorious shouts. He wouldn’t stop now. Not until they see the sun again.

Every so often, Minnie would drift off. Pulse almost impossible to find, steadily becoming slow and thready. Will would nudge her back awake, either by gently chucking her in the chin or pinching the side of her thigh. She’d grumble every time, hot tears dripping onto his skin and sliding down the back of his shirt.

“Almost there,” he whispered. “Hang on.”

They were feet away from the portal when he felt it. A sharp stabbing pain smack dab in the middle of his forehead. Hot and unforgiving, winding around his head, settling in the back of his occipital nerves. He ground his teeth together and pushed past the pain. Only to falter when it got even stronger, sending sparks of agony down the length of his spine. The next time his foot hit the ground it buckled, sending Minnie tipping off his back, hanging onto his shirt.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

Will readjusted her. “I’m fine.”

As soon as the words had left his mouth, a stream of blood trickled out of his nose and down his chin, dripping onto the ground. They both stared at it, breathing picking up. He held onto her with one hand and used the other to rub his nose. When he pulled it away, it was covered in shiny bright red blood. With more continuously flooding down his face.

“Keep going,” Minnie ushered.

He did. But there was something wrong. He felt weak and off balance. Every step was torture. The arms around his neck were beginning to feel like a collar, cinching tighter and tighter, choking him. He gasped for air and gagged when blood gushed into his mouth.

In the distance, he could hear wild chattering.

“Go without me,” Will pleaded.

But he knew that she couldn’t. She was exhausted, frail from the lack of food and proper oxygen. If she tried to run now, her heart would fail.

Either way, they were as good as dead.

Will closed his eyes. The sounds were getting closer. But there was nothing he could do about it. There never had been. Maybe this was always where he was meant to die. Away from those who saved him. A punishment for escaping. The Upside Down was destined to be his final resting ground.

Minnie sniffled and squeezed his hand. A wordless reassurance that she shouldn’t have been giving. At some point she had stopped shaking, body going into overdrive, unable to heat back up. She seemed resigned to her fate, crying soundlessly into his hair. Unlike him, she was going to remember every last second, holding on until the end. Would feel every bite and snap and guzzle. Probably die wishing that Will had been selfless enough to let someone else save her.

But there was no one else.

He opened his eyes and trudged forward. Even if got close enough to tip her into the portal. All that mattered was that she got to the other side. It might’ve been where he belonged, but it certainly wasn’t where she did.

With a strength he didn’t know he possessed, he managed to haul Minnie up his back and take off running towards the portal, tuning out the sounds of branches snapping behind them, closer than he was comfortable with.

A Demodog latched onto his pant leg and he kicked it off, nailing it right in the center of its face. Unfortunately, it had never unlatched its claws, so it ripped a chunk of fabric and skin off with it.

Minnie screamed loud enough to shatter his eardrums.

The Demogorgon was racing towards them.

“Close your eyes,” Will said.

And he jumped.

***

The world came back in a blur of activity. Will stumbled through the gate and fell to the floor, Minnie tumbling off of him and onto her side, eyelashes fluttering. He braced his hands against the cement, coughing and hacking, desperately trying to suck air in. His ears were ringing badly but he could hear someone shouting at him, though he couldn’t make out any words or even what the speaker sounded like. Liz came into his field of vision, as blurry as it was, a big worried blob. She pulled Minnie away from the portal, clutching at her face, patting her cheeks. He waited until he saw her chest rise and fall successfully before crawling the rest of the way out. He didn’t make it far before hands hauled him upwards. He squinted. The nails around his forearms were painted a dark purple.

His senses came back all at once. Ears popping and nose unclogging like he’d just broken through water. Suddenly he could hear someone calling his name, worried and angry and scared. Gaze treading past the nails and up to the shoulders and then the face. Stark brown eyes blinked back at him, shadowed by long black eyelashes, red streaking out of her right nostril in a much more controlled fashion than his.

Will coughed. “El?”

She scowled at him. “What are you doing?”

“What am I doing?” He demanded. A toss up between extremely relieved and pissed off. He shook his head. “What are you doing?”

“Closing the gate,” El answered primly. She was glaring holes into his head, gaze flinty. “I did not know you were in there.”

Will blinked. “Did you know this was here?”

El let go of him, mouth tight. “Not until today.”

Behind them, Minnie shot straight up almost bowling over Liz, who had been leaning over her. She spared a second to look around, surprised. Then she doubled over and threw up, groaning miserably.

“Is she okay?” Will called.

Liz shrugged, occupied with pushing Minnie’s hair back, moving her bangs out of her eyes. Deliberately avoiding looking down at the grey tinged vomit.

Will turned back to El. “How did you find out?”

“You were acting off,” El said. She reached out and scrubbed the blood off the top of his lip, chipping off little flakes onto her sweater. “I went looking in the void to see.”

“See what?” Will asked.

“The MindFlayer,” El responded.

Will jolted. “Is he—“

“Dead,” El clarified.

He swallowed. It was what he had been wanting to hear since a month ago. But that was the case, then how had all of this been happening?

“That is when I found the gate,” El informed him.

“Only one?” Will asked.

El shot him a withering look. “There is more?”

In the background, he noticed Liz going stiff, eyes catching on something behind him. She stood up, moving in front of Minnie. “Guys?”

El turned to her. “Yes?”

She pointed. “What is that?”

Will whipped around, heart kicking off again. But there was nothing out of the ordinary. Standing just off to the side of the portal, seeming almost human was Bob, Barb, and Heather. They looked so life like that if Will hadn’t known better he would’ve fallen for it. He could see the wrinkles on Bob’s forehead, the reflection bouncing off Barb’s glasses, and the water pounding against the pavement, leaving a puddle. But something was weird about the scenario.

“Heather?” El mumbled.

Heather frowned at her. “Eleven?”

Will blinked, shocked. “They can see you?”

Liz threw her hands up in the air. “What is going on?”

His headache was coming back in full force. He pressed the heel of his hands against his eyes, sending little starbursts of color flashing underneath his eyelids. When he let his hands drop, he noticed the green light coming off of them, highlighting his veins, making them bulge.

“Your hands!” Barb gasped. “It’s happening again!”

El pulled at his wrists, turning them over. Inspecting them with a professional air. “They are green.”

“Yeah?” Will said.

Bob frowned. “Is that normal?”

“I have never seen it before,” El responded, clipped. She took a step back and folded her arms. “Is this why you have been lying?”

Will bit his lip. “It’s hard to explain.”

El raised her eyebrows. “Do your best.”

Liz cleared her throat. It struck Will that she had been doing that for the past minute, getting progressively louder and louder. He turned to her.

“Is that normal?” She asked, gesturing at the portal.

It was flickering, changing between red and orange. There were white spores coming out of it, heading their way. It seemed like gravity was collapsing it, making it pool in towards the middle, where it was expanding rapidly, in the formation of a human body. Gradually getting tighter and tighter until it snapped and the gate flowed back to its natural state, leaving a figure standing in the middle of it. He was drenched in black goo, greasy blonde hair stuck to his face, white shirt soaked through with sweat. With three puncture wounds inside his chest, pouring dark blood out of his body, seemingly never ending. When he looked up, his crystal blue eyes met Will’s.

It was Billy Hargrove.

“Everyone is seeing this, right?” Will asked.

“Why wouldn’t we be?” Liz screeched, hysterical.

“Just checking,” Will answered.

Billy stepped out of the portal, vines writhing away from him as he walked, as if he had some sort of repellent. His movements were jerky and lopsided, like he didn’t know how to control his limbs. He kept coming towards them until he was face to face with Will.

“Billy?” Heather gasped.

El stood next to him, pressed shoulder to shoulder. She was staring at Billy, eyes filled with regret. She hadn't raised her hand yet, but she was tapping her fingers against her thigh like she was thinking about it.

“How is this possible?” Heather asked.

Billy tilted his head, a bitter smile curving the edge of his mouth. “You really haven’t figured it out yet?”

Bob squeezed his way in between Billy and Will. “Figured out what?”

“You felt it didn’t you?” Billy said. It wasn’t phrased as a question. He rolled his head around to look past Bob. “The sickness when she started to close the gate.”

Will glanced at El. Was that what that was?

“Doesn’t it strike you as odd that out of everyone these people have loved,” Billy gestured at the ghosts. “That they ended up tied to you? Not someone they might have had a better connection with.”

Barb chewed her lip, nervously. “Billy—“

“What are you saying?” El demanded. She placed a protective hand on Will’s shoulder. “What does this have to do with him?”

Billy ran a hand over his jaw. It was dotted with flecks of blood. Everything about him seemed off. There was something about the energy surrounding him that made the other ghosts wary to get too close. Everytime he spoke, it sent tingles up and down Will’s spine. Erupting his arms in lines of goosebumps. The reaction to being around the dead was amplified with him. Will’s body was actively fighting off the urge to shy away. Stomach rolling unhappily.

Minnie groaned out. “Liz?”

Liz looked at Will. “She needs to get to a hospital.”

“She’ll be fine,” Billy assured her. He picked at his nails idly, like he was bored. There was something very wrong with his eyes. “It’s him you should be worried about.”

“Me?” Will echoed. “Why?”

Billy tutted, as if he were disappointed. “You think it’s a coincidence that the gates started opening again after the MindFlayer died?” He visibly held back a flinch after using his name. “The Upside Down needs a host in order to function. Someone that can control the so-called hive mind. To rally the troops.” The next time he spoke, blood dribbled out of his mouth, smearing down over his collarbones. “Make no mistake. All of this has happened for a reason. Back when the MindFlayer ruled, he kept a tight leash on the power. But now that he’s gone, there’s nothing preventing the Upside Down from leaking into our world.” He cracked a smile. “Well, except one thing.”

El raised her chin. “You are not yourself.”

“Very well spotted,” Billy laughed. “See, before the MindFlayer died, he still had some of his consciousness left inside me. And he used it to transfer his memories to me. Without that, maybe I would have lived. But it overloaded my body, fried my brain.” He shrugged, glancing over at Heather. “The human mind is not meant to carry two different beings at once. So we converged.”

“And now?” El asked.

Billy spread his arms. “And now I am the shell of a person you all believed I was.” He caught the terrified look on Barb’s face and smiled. “But don’t worry. I’m not here to kill you. Rather, I’m here to be your savior.”

“We don’t need a savior,” Bob spat.

“My mistake,” Billy drawled. “I was under the impression that you all wanted to move on. To leave this earthly torment and arrive at the pearly gates.”

Will narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean? Do you know how to help them cross over?”

Billy shook his head. “No. But you do.”

Barb blanched. “Don’t listen to him, Will!”

Will ignored her. “How?”

“Like I said,” Billy crooned. “Without the MindFlayer around, the Upside Down needs a host to control it. And that’s exactly what it’s done. Picked the next best thing.” He walked through Bob and leaned down to bring his face inches from Will’s. “What with your connection, is it really any surprise that it chose you?”

Will jerked backwards, reeling. He shook his head. Couldn’t bear to look at anyone. “You’re wrong. If I was actually the one controlling all this. I would know.”

“Would you?” Billy asked. He shrugged. “You see, the MindFlayer keeps all his victims chained to him, did you know that? He uses their body and their soul to help power the Upside Down. I believe you’ve seen that phenomenon at the center of the town, yes?” His expression was hard, unreadable. There was no inflection in his voice. Nothing that revealed him as the human boy he once was. “Well, it has this unfortunate side effect of, how shall I say, trapping them? And without the MindFlayer, who do you think they went to?”

Will gagged. “No.”

“You are essential to keep the Upside Down alive,” Billy told him. He sighed, seeing El raise her hand. “I’m already dead, kiddo. There’s nothing you can do.”

“The glowing hands?” Will braved.

Billy nodded. “The closer you are to the gate the stronger you become. Which is why all our little ghostly friends here are visible to our audience.”

Liz gestured at Minnie, who was lying on the ground next to her mess, breathing shallowly. Her cheeks had an unnatural pallor to them. Will remembered what it was like when he’d first come out of the Upside Down. Body trying to reject the oxygen, the sun, everything. He’d almost suffocated to death down there. And from the looks of it, Minnie most likely had a worsening case of hypoxia. They needed to get fluids in her stat.

But he needed to fix something first.

“How do I help them move on?” Will pressed.

Billy frowned. “Do you really want to know the answer? Cause it ain’t pretty. If it were me, I would be better off not knowing. It’s only going to eat you up inside.”

Will wasn’t playing around anymore. “What is it.”

“It’s the gates,” Billy answered. “As long as the Upside Down remains, they will never be able to find peace.”

“So we need to close them?” Will directed the question at El, who was staring unblinking at the ground. “We’ve done that before.”

Billy bit his lip. “Oh, but there’s a catch.”

Barb went over to check on Minnie, whispering intently with Liz. She reached down to shake her shoulder but her hand went straight through her. It seemed the connection made them stronger but not strong enough to ever be as they once were.

El’s face dawned with understanding. “The sickness.”

“What?” Will asked.

She turned to him. “The catch. It is you.”

“I’m afraid it’s true,” Billy informed him. A bit of genuine emotion shone through in his eyes. Sadness. “After the MindFlayer passed, the Upside Down was weakened. Almost to the point of extinction. So the connection it created with you, was deeper than it ever had been before, in order to keep it alive and running. Which means that it’s been pulling energy from you. And in turn, you have sucked energy from it. Become almost addicted to it.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Will denied. He was fine. A little tired some days. But that was only normal. “Everyone keeps saying I’m sick. But I’m not.”

“Not yet,” Billy corrected. “But you will be if you do this. The connection you have formed is not a beneficial one nor is it long lasting. It was only a temporary solution.” He looked over at El. “She was right to warn you of this. And I’m truly sorry to have to be the one to tell you.” He paused, ramping up the tension. Will couldn’t tell if that was something Billy Hargrove would’ve done or the MindFlayer. “But if you close the gates and cut off the access to our world, then the Upside Down will be blocked from you. And without that constant cycle of energy, your life force will be depleted. And you… will also cease to exist.”

Will was numb.

“There is no other way,” Billy remarked.

“Will!” Liz shouted.

His vision was fuzzy. “Yeah?”

“She doesn’t have a pulse!” Liz sobbed.

“Will?” El touched his wrist.

He grabbed his head. “The walkie-talkie.”

“What?” Bob hollered.

“Call Mike!” El ordered. “He will bring help!”

The last thing Will heard was Heather asking if he needed to sit down. Then his eyes rolled back into his head and he was out.

***

He woke up to an aggravating beeping noise going off to his right. He groaned and rolled over, trying to find the source, assuming it was his alarm clock. But came up empty, hand swatting at the air. He frowned and opened his eyes, mind lurching to a halt when he looked up and saw a plain white ceiling and green paint on the walls. He was lying in a hospital bed with purple sheets and a scratchy covering on the pillow case. He had an IV stuck in his left hand, hooked up to a bag raised above his head on a pole. With a blood pressure cuff fastened around his upper arm. And a pulse oximeter tapped to his finger. Next to him was a monitor, displaying his vital signs, beeping away and signaling that his heart rate was too slow.

He could hear shouting out in the hallway. Bits and pieces carrying over into his room. It sounded like Mike and Hopper with little interruptions from Max and Jonathan. Suddenly everything came rushing back to him and he fell back against the bed.

“Are you okay?” Bob asked. He was sitting in the chair next to the head of his bed, ringing his hands. “You’ve been asleep for three hours now.”

Will rubbed at his eyes. “Did you know?”

“About the connection between you and the Upside Down?” Barb offered. “Yeah, we—or at least, I did.”

“But we didn’t know about the other thing,” Bob said. There were livid lines around his mouth. “I never would have allowed him to tell you otherwise.”

Billy scoffed, startling him. “So you’d rather prefer being stuck like this forever? No hope in sight?”

Heather was sitting next to him, on the opposite side of the room, elbows planted on her knees. Despite taking the chair next to his, she wouldn’t look in Billy’s direction. Eyes downcast.

“That’s enough!” Barb said.

It went silent, everyone being appropriately chastised. Billy leaned back in the chair, crossing one leg over the other, the definition of ease. There were dark circles under his eyes. But at least Will could see the person lurking underneath this time. Not some walking robot. A facsimile of a human being. A pretender.

“You don’t have to do this,” Bob reassured him.

Barb rolled her eyes and threw her hands up. “Honestly, why do I even try.”

“I don’t?” Will asked, voice small. He’d never felt more like a child inside a room full of grown-ups. “But what about you guys?”

“Don’t worry about us,” Heather answered. She had braided her hair and tossed it over her shoulder. But it was slowly springing apart. Resistant to change. “We’ve made it this long, haven’t we?”

Will bit his lip. He felt a strange sort of kinship with everyone in the room, even Billy. Maybe even especially him, considering how the MindFlayer had torn both of their lives from them. But more than that, he was responsible for them. Everything that happened to them was because of him. And now he finally had the chance to change it. To right his wrongs.

But he didn’t want to. He was scared.

He’d accepted death once, years ago. When he’d been eleven, slowly choking on a vine, dropping in and out of consciousness. He figured he’d rather die there than by being ripped open by the Demogorgon. At least that way it didn’t win.

But now?

After having the option practically taken away from him. He’d never wanted to live more. Funny how things worked like that. You never realize how much you love something until it’s gone.

Will closed his eyes. “What’s it like?”

“What?” Barb asked.

“The afterlife,” Will said.

Billy sighed. “I guess we’ll never know.”

Will rolled over in bed, pressing his face against the awful fabric of the pillow and sobbed. There was an overwhelming, all-consuming pressure inside his chest. It felt like someone had started scooping out pieces of his sternum while he’d been asleep. Forgetting to close the entrance to his heart back up.

He drifted in and out of wakefulness. Occasionally opening up his eyes, only to burst into tears. After a few rounds of this, it made his nose clog up. So he had to breathe out of his mouth, causing his throat to be sore.

It was sad that Will could count on more than one hand how many times he’d been more miserable than this. And he was actually contemplating the worth of his own life.

The next time he woke up, it was just him and Heather in the room. Though he could hear Bob and Billy arguing just outside the door. Never able to stray too far away without the tether reeling them back in. She was sitting in Bob’s spot, watching the television with fascination. Her attention turned to him when he coughed, shifting around on the bed.

“Hey,” she greeted.

Will smiled, just because she looked like she needed it. This had to be as much of a bombshell for her as it was for him. “Hi.”

“I never met you in my past life, did I?” She asked.

He shook his head. “No, never.”

She tipped her head at him, studying. Then clarity broke out across her face. “I would’ve liked you.”

He sniffled. “Really?”

Heather shrugged. “You’re a good kid, Will. In a few years, you’re going to be a real heartbreaker, I can tell.” She paused, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. A nervous tick. “I don’t think you would’ve liked me very much, though.”

Will couldn’t imagine that. “Why not?”

“I was a terrible person,” she let out. “I took everything for granted; money, objects, people. I treated popularity like a benediction. Thought it made me better than everyone else. Because I was pretty and rich and so fucking self absorbed. It was pathetic.”

He wanted to give her a hug. In a roundabout way, she almost reminded him of Steve. A complete selfish jerk on the outside and a total sweetheart on the inside. Someone that not many people had ever given the chance to be themselves.

“I think that’s called high school,” Will mumbled. She laughed, a bright tinkling sound, like a bell. “I mean, that’s what growing up is all about, right?” He propped himself up on an elbow and peered at her. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. That’s something you’ve never got the opportunity to do.”

Heather wiped her eyes. “You know the last thing I said to my mom?” She didn’t wait for his response. “I told her that I hated her and wished she’d just get the hell out of my life. All because she wouldn’t buy me some stupid goddamn car.” She put her head in her hands, voice muffled by her palms. “And now I can’t even tell her differently. She died thinking that I hated her. My mom. When it couldn’t be further from the truth.”

A tear slid down Will’s cheek. “Maybe when you see her again, you can let her know. Though I think that it’s just part of being a parent. Letting the things your kids do just roll off your back. Because, I mean, who hasn’t had a fit of anger and told their parents that you hate them? I think it’s a rite of passage to be honest.”

“When I see them again?” Heather breathed.

Will held her gaze. “Yeah.”

She shook her head. “But then you won’t ever get to grow up. And Will, you deserve it more than me.”

“It’s not about deserving,” Will said, firmly. He didn’t know where this confidence was coming from. “It’s about what’s right.”

Heather frowned. “You could live out your whole life. None of us would stop you. Eventually, you’d die of old age, like you’re meant to do. And I’ll be reunited with my parents then.”

“Do you want that?” Will asked.

She didn’t answer.

“If I have to coexist with the Upside Down in order to have a full life, then I don’t want it!” Will declared. His stomach gurgled in protest. But he paid it no mind. “What kind of person would I be if I willingly let people die for me and just turned the other cheek? How fulfilling of a life would that be? Who, in good conscience, could ever love me? I’d be no better than the MindFlayer.”

Heather frowned. “What changed your mind?”

“I didn’t,” Will said. “I’ll be honest; I’m going out of my mind right now. It’s probably the scariest thing I’ve ever had to do.” Someone on the television was screaming about the bills. “But the alternative? Of keeping my life but losing myself? It’s a thousand times worse.”

How could he ever look his mom in the face, knowing what he’d done. Holding all these people hostage, chaining them to him forever. Allowing the Upside Down to run rampant and pick off person by person, stealing their energy and giving it to Will. Eventually, maybe not now, but later on, everyone would come to resent him. Even himself.

What was one person’s life compared to millions?

A blip.

“You don’t think you’re going to regret it?” Heather prodded, obviously hating herself for asking. He could see how much it was weighing on her.

He knew he’d made the right choice.

“No,” Will said.

She raised her eyebrows. “Why not?”

“I’ll have you guys there with me, won’t I?” Will reminded her. He smiled, softly. A real one this time. “It’ll be my turn to follow you around.”

***

Chapter Text

His mom was the first one to approach him. Quietly stepping into the room, eyes red rimmed and puffy. For a second they just sat there and looked at each other, faces tight with apprehension. Then she shut the door behind her and took a seat, putting her hands in between her legs, squeezing them together. She had ended up sitting down next to Bob, who was sitting ramrod straight, body tilted away, like he was afraid he’d accidentally brush up against her.

“How are you doing, baby?” His mom asked.

Will had to glance up at the ceiling, blinking away another wave of tears. He released a shaky breath. “I’m okay.”

His mom hummed in disbelief. As she leaned forward, her chair let out a loud creak. There were deep lines around her mouth. “Can you tell me the truth?”

He clenched his jaw. “What do you want me to say?”

She shrugged, smoothing down the crooked blanket on his lap, nails chipped and bitten. There was an air of fragility around her. Like a volcano about to erupt, rumbling and bubbling, spraying the ash down from above on unsuspecting inhabitants. Her eyes were dark and glassy, anger and denial sinking down into the depths of them. She rested her hand on his leg and left it there, patting him softly.

“I just want to know how you’re feeling,” she said, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. “We used to be so close and lately I’ve felt like you don’t talk to me anymore. Maybe that’s part of growing up, separating from your parents. But… I always thought you’d be my boy.”

“I am,” Will said. He put his hand down over hers. “About what I said in the cabin—I didn’t mean it. I know you guys love me. Everyone has done so much to keep me safe. I’m the luckiest kid in the world. How could I not be with a mom like you?”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry I’ve been so distant. I guess I’ve just been caught up in my own stuff. I should’ve been paying more attention to you.” She blinked and a tear rolled down her cheek, dripping onto her jeans, dampening the fabric. “I promised myself that I’d never take you for granted. That if we got you back that I’d be the parent you deserved. Maybe if I had been better… none of this would be happening.”

Will had never heard anything more wrong in his life. She was the best mom he could’ve asked for. In comparison, he’d always felt like a terrible son. Like a problem child that no one knew what to do with. When he was younger, he’d always been in awe of her. Of how she stood up to his dad. Of how she helped them with their homework, even when she was tired and frustrated after a long day at work. Of how she bought him a brand new sketchbook for his birthday and went without makeup and new shoes for two months. Then he’d heard Jonathan’s stories about how brave she’d been; facing down cops and monsters, despite everyone around her calling her crazy. And his respect for her had grown, not only as the provider in his life, but as an individual person.

“That’s not true,” Will denied. “You tried to get through to me, but I just kept resisting it. There was nothing more that you could’ve done, besides letting me know that you were there for me, whenever I was ready.”

She covered her mouth with a hand, pressing down into it, hiding her expression. “I feel like I’ve failed you. I’m your mother. I’m supposed to protect you. But I have never been able to do that. I’m only there to pick up the pieces afterwards.”

Will shook his head. “You know I don’t think that. I mean—I wouldn’t even be here without you. When I was stuck in the Upside Down, there were so many times when I just wanted to give up. But you kept me going, mom. I tried so hard to get everyone’s attention but you were the only one who listened. Hearing your voice everyday was—it was everything to me.” His throat was tight. “I know you blame yourself for all of this. But there was nothing anyone could’ve done to stop it.”

“I should’ve been there,” she said. “That night.”

“And then what?” Will prompted. He’d gone over this specific scenario a million times. “Even if you had picked me up, it still would’ve got me. And if it didn’t, someone else would’ve taken my place.”

Her expression twisted. “It shouldn’t have been you.”

“But it was,” Will said. He met Billy’s eyes from where he was lurking by the door, clearly uncomfortable. “And I’m not happy about it. I probably never will be. But I’m glad no one else had to go through it.” He remembered the way Billy’s parents stood in the back at his funeral while Max stood in the front, spine straight. How none of them cried. How the kids from the basketball team lingered around the casket, grim but not outwardly upset or affected. A small group of people had been in attendance but it seemed like none of them had really known him, had really cared. “Because no one else has a mom like you. And for that reason, they wouldn’t have ever made it out.”

Billy turned away, expression shuttering. Will wondered if he’d been there that day. If he’d seen the way people had treated it like a chore to mourn him. Like it was something they were doing to save face. A false show of love and affection. Grief without the permanence of it.

His mom sniffled. “But now you’re—

“Mom—“ Will shook his head.

She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes, digging in like if she pushed hard enough the scene before her would disappear. “Sometimes it feels like it’s never enough. Like all we’ve been doing is prolonging the inevitable.”

“You saved me—“

“But not really,” she disagreed.

Bob looked torn up inside. He bent over and put his head in his hands, hiding. “We can’t do this.”

Billy didn’t respond.

Barb rubbed her eyes. “This isn’t just about us.”

“It’s wrong,” Bob groaned. “We can’t keep taking him away from her. Can’t you see what it’s doing to everyone? How it’s tearing her apart.”

Heather shifted. “It’ll be worse for them if we don’t.”

“You don’t know that,” Bob said.

“Yes we do,” Billy replied. Not letting any emotion bleed through in his voice. “You’ve seen it.”

“Then we stop it!” Bob snapped.

“How?” Billy demanded.

Bob threw his hands up in the air. “They’ve done it before haven’t they? They’ll do it again.”

Billy took a step forward, snarling. “And how many people are you willing to let die to do it?”

“So what,” Bob returned evenly. His face was hard. “Now you’re suddenly the expert on morals?”

Billy flinched backwards, stung.

Barb held out her hands in a show of peace. She glanced over at Will and her jaw clenched. “We don’t need to hash this out right now.”

Heather stared down at her hands, morose. “It doesn’t matter anyways. We can argue all we want. But it’s Will’s choice.”

His mom was staring at him, watching his eyes flick back and forth around the empty room. She sat up straight, chair creaking under her weight. “Is it true? What Jane said? Can you see…”

He smiled. “Yeah.”

She let out a breath, eyebrows raising. Gesturing around with her hands. “And they’re here?”

Will nodded. “It’s pretty creepy to be honest.”

His mom laughed, stunned. She scanned the room, face bright and open like a child on Christmas. She lowered her voice. “Can they see me?”

Barb cracked a smile.

“They can hear you too,” Will added.

She blinked and then sheepishly addressed them, eyes settled somewhere around Heather’s shoulder. “It’s very nice to, uh, see all of you.”

Bob was staring at her, naked longing on his face. He held up a hand in a wave and then let it drop back down. Body still leaned away from hers, pointed in a stiff line like a sideways arrow.

“Likewise,” Heather responded.

He swallowed. “They said hello.”

His mom rubbed at her wrist. “Who is all here?”

Will knew what she was really asking. He shifted around in the bed, propping himself up against the tear stained pillow. As he named each person he pointed in their direction. “Heather and Barb are sitting in the seats opposite of you. Billy’s over in the corner by the doorway, he just waved. And uh, Bob’s in the chair next to you.”

Bob sent him a look with his eyes, slightly pleading. But Will didn’t know what it meant. He just shrugged back at him.

His mom instantly turned towards Bob. “Oh.”

Barb ducked her head, grinning.

“Is he—“ his mom cut herself off, clearing her throat. “Are they okay? They’re not in any pain, right?”

“Physically or mentally?” Billy mumbled.

Heather flipped him off.

Will blinked, taken aback. Never once had he thought to ask that question. All of this time he had just assumed the answer. Anxiously, he looked over at Barb. Relieved, when she shook her head.

“They said no,” Will translated.

She nodded. “That’s good.”

Unable to stand the silence, Will coughed into his fist. “What time is it?”

His mom peered down at her watch. “Quarter to six.”

Half the day was gone. It felt simultaneously like no time had passed at all and also like five months had gone by.

How many more days would he have left after they closed all the portals? Would it kill him immediately afterwards? What would it feel like?

Will chewed the inside of his cheek. “Okay.”

She reached over and brushed his hair out of his eyes. Always so gentle. She offered him a kind smile. “Doctor Owens said he’d be here later tonight to talk to you.”

“About what?” Will asked.

She faltered. “About what to do?”

Will frowned. “We already know what to do.”

His mom tilted her head. “But I thought—El said she doesn’t know how to fix it.

“She doesn’t,” Will answered, confused.

“Well then what exactly are we doing?” She prodded.

Will plucked a piece of lint off of the covers. There was a dark flush creeping up his neck. “Well, um. I guess we’re closing the gates.”

He didn’t dare look up to see her reaction.

“So you’ve found a way to do that safely?” She asked, tone clipped and controlled.

Heather averted her gaze.

Will heaved a breath. “Not exactly.”

His mom shook her head. “Then that’s why Doctor Owens is coming to talk to you.” She slipped her hand into his, squeezing tightly like she didn’t want to let go. “We’re going to find a way to fix this. I promise, baby.”

Will smiled but it was numb.

There was no other way to fix it.

***

“What do you think of this?” Doctor Owens asked, turning in his stool to glance at Will’s mom and Hopper. There was a tan folder resting on his lap, flipped open to disclose pages of paper with a typed up diagnosis and scribbled handwriting. There was a pink sheet in there with thick lines printed out in waves, measuring the electricity in his heart.

Hopper folded his arms. “I think this is bullshit.”

They were all crowded around Will’s hospital bed, hunched in, standing shoulder to shoulder. His mom was still sitting in the chair next to him but Jonathan had replaced the spot Bob had occupied. And Hopper and El were sitting in the seats across from them, El closer towards him.

“He’s right,” Mike said. He was standing in front of the door like he was blocking the entryway. Though from what Will didn’t know. When Doctor Owens looked over at him, he scowled, eyes thunderous.

Jonathan rubbed at his face. “It does sound kind of ridiculous. How do we even know that Billy’s telling the truth?” He bit his lip, debating. “You said he was still connected to the MindFlayer right? What if he’s just playing all of us?”

Max flinched, wrapping her arms around herself. She’d been quiet ever since they’d walked through the door. Occasionally scanning the room with nervous eyes like if she looked long and hard enough she’d be able to see her brother.

Will shook his head. “He’s telling the truth.”

“And you’re sure of that?” Hopper asked.

El frowned. “Friends don’t lie.”

Lucas stuffed his hands into his pockets. The tension was visible in his body, straining the tendons in his neck. “When has Billy ever been our friend?”

Doctor Owens rolled his eyes, sighing. He turned a page, seemingly for something to do.

“Why would he lie though?” Dustin asked, thoughtfully. At Mike’s incredulous look, he blanched. “I mean, really. What does he get out of it? The guy is already dead.”

“Then what’s he trying to do?” Jonathan demanded. Earlier he had been sad, almost desperately so. Now he was just angry. “Billy doesn’t strike me as the type to do something out of the kindness of his heart.”

Will glanced at the space just behind Hopper where Bob and Heather were huddled. He tried to catch their attention but Bob lowered his head, gaze snagging on the reflection of the lights bouncing off the floor. Across the room, next to Mike, Barb gave him a sympathetic grimace.

“It’s not just him,” Will said. He scratched underneath the blood pressure cuff hanging loose on his arm. “Every single one of them can feel it.” He tipped his head to the side. “Including El.”

El nodded. “The sickness.”

His mom was wringing her hands. “Isn’t there anything we can do?” She started to shrug and then stopped, aborting the movement. It looked like a twitch. “He’s been connected to the Upside Down before. Can’t we just burn it out of him again?”

He recoiled. The reaction was instinctive.

“There’s nothing to burn out,” Doctor Owens said. His skin looked gray and sallow in the fluorescent lighting. Dark bags catching underneath his eyes. There was a sort of fragile tiredness around him. World weary. “This isn’t the same thing as what happened with the so-called MindFlayer. This isn’t a possession. It’s a bond on a much deeper level. Not with an entity but with an entire realm.”

Mike’s mouth tightened. “So what do we do? There’s got to be a way to stop the connection. We can’t just leave Will stuck to this thing.”

“Not stuck,” El spoke up.

Will’s eyebrows arched downwards. “What?”

“He is stuck,” Dustin disagreed. He gestured at Will. “It’s not like he went out and chose this.”

El regarded him silently.

His heart leaped up into his esophagus. Leaning forward, he hooked his eyes with El’s. She stared back, betraying nothing. Face blank except for the pursed set to her lips.

He swallowed. “But I didn’t.”

El blew out a breath. “Not on purpose.”

Max pushed her tongue out against her cheek, one side of her face bulging out. “That’s not creepy at all.”

“Are you saying that I did this?” Will asked, hesitant. He couldn’t fathom a world in which he willingly accepted this. There was a hatred rooted too deep inside him to ever want anything to do with the Upside Down. A bitterness that echoed all the way throughout his childhood. “Why would I do that?”

“No choice,” El explained. “It was… what is the word?” She looked at Hopper, who obviously didn’t have a clue what she was trying to say. Frustrated, she stamped her foot. “Not active consciousness.”

“Subconscious?” Mike suggested.

“It was subconscious,” El repeated.

“How can you tell?” His mom wondered.

“I can see it,” El said. She reached up and wrapped a hand around her throat, squeezing for emphasis. “The root has been inside since he came out.”

Will stiffened. “The root?”

He had an image of a dark room surrounded by broken pillars, shelves scattered around on the floor. Ceiling covered with twisting vines, dangling down like apples ready to be plucked from the tree. A monster cloaked in darkness, blurring behind walls and scampering down the stairs. Nails dragging harshly against the ground. And a vine lunging towards him. Will opening his mouth and screaming and then choking and then—fear rapidly changing to terror when he couldn’t breathe, a burning sensation in his throat, and then nothing—his mom and Hopper staring down at him with large yellow hazmat suits like the kind people from television wore.

His mom was watching him with knowing eyes.

“There are parts of you,” El began. Her mouth shaped around words like she was trying them out before speaking. “That belong to the Upside Down.” She dropped her hand and clasped his. “And parts that it stole from you.”

Doctor Owens was studying them in a detached sort of way, expression far away. He looked like he was going over something in his mind. When he registered Will’s eyes on him, he snapped back into focus.

“You should have died that day,” El told him. Her voice was firm and undeniable but kind and calm. Maybe hearing that should’ve made him mad or resigned or even shocked. But his head wouldn’t wrap around it. The words coming out of her mouth. This impossible girl telling him something even more so. There was no way she should’ve known this. But she did. The same way she knew how to throw people through the air with her hands and stare down bad people without backing down. The same way that she slurped syrup in his ear and climbed into his bed in the middle of the night for a sleepover and made him read chapter books out loud to her.

Maybe coming from someone else it would’ve hurt.

But not with her.

It almost felt as if she were finally speaking something into existence that he’d known and hidden from himself since the very beginning.

“But you did not,” El continued. “Your parents did not save you Will. The Upside Down did. And now it wants you to save it.”

Will’s vision swam. He was cold and warm and unmistakably upset. Chest filling up with black goo and water and D&D dice. Vines twisting around his rib cage, popping and exploding his lungs. He gasped for air.

I can’t, he thought.

Lucas made a noise in the back of his throat. Taking a step forward and shaking his head. “Even if what Billy said is true. How do we know that closing the gates won’t kill everybody? From what you said Hawkins has been infected right? What if it’s become dependable on another source of energy. Like Will.”

Dustin cocked his head, hat bumping into Max’s arm. “But it’s not the same thing. Will and the Upside Down have been leeching energy from each other, sort of like a symbiotic relationship. This is different. The Upside Down can’t exist without Hawkins. But Hawkins can exist without it. It would probably be better off without all the excess energy being ripped from it.”

Mike flung his hands up in the air. “Who cares! You’re all missing the big picture. If we close those gates and cut off access to the Upside Down, it will kill Will!” Cheeks flushing vibrant red. “We need to come up with a way to disconnect him from it. Permanently this time.”

El glared at him. “You are not getting it.”

“Getting what?” Lucas shot back. He ran a hand through his hair. “I know that historically, you’ve always been fine with the thought of Will dying. But we haven’t been!”

His mom winced, pain slucing over her features.

A marker levitated off of a clipboard and went flying at Lucas, smacking him in the face, bouncing off his cheekbone. He stumbled backwards, gaping at El.

She stood up. “You are not the only ones who are losing him.” She raised her chin in defiance. “You have your sisters and your brothers. But this is the only one I have got and have ever been allowed to keep.”

Will stared at her. “El—“

Hopper cleared his throat, directing his question towards Doctor Owens. “You’re the expert. Got any ideas on how to stop this?”

Doctor Owens pushed his glasses up his head, letting them rest there like sunglasses. “There is no other way. Maybe if we had caught the virus earlier, we could’ve stopped it from spreading. But it’s too late now.” He held up a picture. It was a feeble attempt at a drawing. A penciled in image of a cell slowly expanding and changing shape. He tapped it with his pen. “Imagine that these are Will’s cells. Originally starting out as round and red with all the right amounts of erythrocytes and leukocytes. And over time, they slowly adapted into something more. Forming into squares instead of circles. With potentially more antibodies or less cancer in the body.” He shrugged. “Theoretically, going off his white blood cell count, I’m inclined to believe that the Upside Down has actually been trying to protect him.”

Mike scoffed.

“So what?” Jonathan spat. “We just let him die.”

Doctor Owens gave him a hard look. “I’m not liable to make any sort of decisions. But we cannot in good conscience overlook the devastating effects that the open gates could have on our world.”

“So evacuate Hawkins,” Dustin suggested. “Move everyone out and take it off the map.”

“Until what?” Max snapped. “The monsters get bored or hungry and start to leave? Hawkins isn’t an abandoned island, Dustin. There’s tons of towns around us.”

Billy nodded to himself, a slight upturn to his mouth, like he was approving of what she said.

Will stared down at the sheets.

“Position guards at the gates then,” Lucas tried.

“That isn’t shady at all,” Jonathan mumbled.

Doctor Owens looked like he wanted to hit one or both of them over the head with his clipboard. “I’m supposed to station multiple military soldiers out at these portals and let them risk their lives for one person?”

Mike pressed his hands against his face, distraught. “What’s the difference between them and the ones you sent down into those tunnels?”

Doctor Owens pressed his lips together in a thin line. “They knew what they were getting into.”

“So tell them!” Lucas exploded. “You think there’s people out there that wouldn’t offer themselves up in a heartbeat?”

Hopper pinched the bridge of his nose.

“That’s not how this works,” Doctor Owens said. “The existence of these things was meant to remain a secret. Classified, for a better term. We did our best to ensure that we kept you out of this. And even when we couldn’t do that, we made sure that it couldn’t get out further.” He gestured at Jonathan, making him hunker down in his chair. “Despite your best efforts to do the opposite.”

Jonathan rolled his eyes. “Why don’t you make them sign all those bullshit NDA’s. That would surely solve the problem.”

Doctor Owens shook his head. “It’s pointless to make this a bigger issue than it is. We have the ability to close off all the openings to the Upside Down for good. Why would I choose to waste anymore human life?”

“So that’s it?” His mom asked.

“Joyce—“ Hopper started.

She laughed humorlessly. “I called you because I trusted you. Despite all that you people have done to my son and my family. I still thought that you would help us.” Her lips trembled violently. “You act like this is all one big coincidence but it’s not. We didn’t open the rift, Sam. You did. All of this. Every death. Is on your hands. I know all of you idiots in lab coats like to pretend that you’ve fixed it. But you never have. You can’t even close them without Eleven.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Will said.

The room seemed to freeze. Everyone whipped around to stare at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. Jonathan’s face pinched so tight it seemed painful. For a second the earth seemed to tip off of its axis, dipping the world around and when it came back up everything was backwards.

“What!” Mike shouted.

“Of course it does!” Dustin hollered, same pitch.

He looked over at Billy, who remained impassive to the whole situation, outwardly expressing nothing but a cool disinterest. But Will knew it was all a facade. A cover up to hide the real turmoil in his eyes when he looked at Max or heard someone throw his name around carelessly. Like his sacrifice meant nothing.

Maybe that’s what encouraged him. The thought of everyone dying for nothing. The thought of letting the Upside Down run rampant and continue to torture little kids and tear apart friendships and ruin families. Maybe it was the glowing feeling inside him. A neglected part that wanted to be a hero.

“It doesn’t matter,” Will echoed. He made and held eye contact with Heather, smiling faintly. “Because it’s not up to any of you. And I already made my choice a long time ago.”

His mom dropped her head into her hands, sobbing. Hopper’s hands tensed from where they were clutching onto the wooden arms of the chairs, like he was holding himself back from rushing over to her. But he didn’t seem surprised. Will figured that he knew what it was like to lose a kid. Could see the warning signs miles away.

“Will—“ Jonathan pleaded. “Don’t do this.”

But he had to. He’d been destined for it. He was the only one strong enough to make the decision. Without him there would be no more openings. No more tragedies. He used to think there was no real reason why he’d been chosen that night. But maybe this was it.

His chance.

“How long will it take?” Will asked.

“To close them?” Doctor Owens concluded. He turned the question over for a moment. “Depends on if we have some assistance or not.”

El closed her eyes.

Max was crying into her palm, stifling the noise.

“Eleven?” Mike asked.

“I will do it,” El agreed.

Doctor Owens nodded. “I’d say that a rough estimate would be around three weeks. Assuming the gates don’t try to open again or pop up elsewhere.”

Three weeks.

Fuck.

Jonathan’s expression crumpled. “Three weeks? That’s all we’re gonna get… to… say goodbye?”

Doctor Owens dipped his head. “I’m afraid that prolonging the process will, ah, make things more painful.”

“For who?” Mike choked.

Will sucked in a breath. “Do you know what… it’s going to feel like? Or… what’s going to happen to me?”

Doctor Owens reached out and patted his knee. “I assume it’s going to act in a similar fashion to a terminal illness. Probably proceeding slowly with few symptoms and then as we shut down more gates it will pick up the pace and get progressively worse.”

He let his head drop down back against the pillow. “Can I still go to school?”

“As long as you’re able to,” Doctor Owens said. “Normalcy should be something you strive for until the moment it needs to become otherwise.” He stuttered, face whiting with regret. “As for the parents, you have my word that I will attempt to make this go as smoothly as possible. Whatever you need. Hospital bills. Funeral expenses. We will cover it. It’s the least we can do.”

His mom stood up. “I don’t care about any of that.”

“Then what do you want?” Doctor Owens asked.

“My son!” She yelled and then headed towards the door and marched out of the room.

***

The process was slow going. A week later and Will was barely starting to feel the effects of the first gate being closed. It was making him more lethargic than usual. With little aches and pains in his body, like when he’d gotten the flu. But other than that everything seemed par the course. Except of course, for the fact that everyone was walking on eggshells around him. Just like they had when he’d first been brought back from the Upside Down.

He hated it. Despised the way that everytime he hung out with his friends it felt like they were picturing what it would be like when he wasn’t there. Loathed how his mom slept outside his door and how Jonathan practically escorted him into the school every morning. Doctor Owens had said that normalcy would be good for the grieving process, but it seemed like this was going to become the new normal. Would probably last that way long after he was gone.

Liz and Minnie were standing out by the fence waiting for him. He stopped in his tracks, surprised. A few kids slammed into his back, muttering curses at him. But he ignored them. Too busy observing the grim look on Liz’s face and the apprehensive one on Minnie’s. Eventually, when he’d been standing in one spot for longer than normal, he sucked it up and headed over towards them.

“About time,” Liz said, bitingly.

Will sighed and turned towards Minnie. “It’s good to see you up and moving. How are you doing?”

She smiled at him. “I’m good. Still a little hard for me to digest food, but the Doctors said that’s to be expected.”

“You look better,” Will said.

It was true. In the short time she had been back, her cheeks had begun to fill out again, covering up the sharp jut of her cheekbones. Her clothes still drowned her completely, but her shirts were getting less baggy by the day. Even her hair had started to get back its healthy shine, fluffing out around her face. He hadn’t known her before so there weren't many comparisons Will could draw. But her smile still remained the only dim and damaged thing about her.

Minnie flushed. “Thank you.”

Liz bumped her shoulder into hers, grinning wildly. “See. Still pretty.”

Minnie rolled her eyes.

“And how are you?” Liz demanded.

Will blinked. “Oh well—“

“And don’t bother lying,” Liz finished. She put her hands on her hips. Not for the first time Will was amazed at how much she’d come to trust him. Letting her full personality show. “Your brother told me what was going on when we were at the hospital.”

“Oh well—“ Will said again, helplessly.

Liz raised her eyebrows, imperiously. “I think it’s a dumb idea, for the record. You’re too smart to die.” She shuffled her feet, same old ratty converse. “Also… I guess I kind of got used to you sticking around. Telling me what to do and such.”

“Helping you,” Will corrected. Then shrugged, unsure of what to say. They hadn’t known each other long enough for her to be totally heartbroken about it. But they’d been through more together than most people had. “Listen—“

She darted forward and wrapped him in a hug. Pressing her forehead against his stomach. Startled, he hurried to fold his arms around her. They were stiff for a moment and then she seemed to melt into him. He glanced at Minnie and she held up her hands.

“Thank you,” Liz mumbled. “For getting her back.”

He softened. “Of course.”

When she pulled away she wouldn’t meet his eyes. She rubbed at her cheek, embarrassed. “I’m sorry that I dragged you into this again. Maybe if… I hadn’t… you would still be okay.”

Tears sprung to his eyes. “It’s not your fault, Liz.”

“Really?” She pressed.

He nodded. “Even if I had the chance to do things differently. I’d still come and find you in that smelly alleyway. And I’d still do everything I could to bring her home safely.”

Minnie dashed forward and hugged him as well. “Thank you for taking care of her while I was gone.”

Will patted her shoulders. “Anytime.”

Liz snorted. “No. Let’s not do this again.”

He laughed, chest bursting with it. There was something about being around middle schoolers that made you realize your importance.

Minnie squirmed away. Distantly, Will noticed that it was nice to be hugged in appreciation rather than desperation. For people to clutch him tight and then let go. Not trying to pin him down and keep him there.

“You are okay, right?” Liz sobered.

Will’s heart ached. “Yeah. Mostly.”

She linked her fingers with Minnie’s. They were both peering up at him, careful concern plain as day. Liz’s eyes were suspiciously shiny around the corners. She blinked hard, wiping her nose against her shoulder, trying to be discreet.

“What are you doing today?” Minnie asked suddenly.

Will glanced over at Jonathan’s car, waiting in the parking lot. He could see the outline of his brother through the windshield, staring at him curiously. There was a new wound fresh in his eyes lately. A raw spiraling agony with Will’s name on it. And everyone seemed to have it. Sometimes it killed him to look at it. Like staring at the sun.

“Nothing?” Will guessed.

Minnie beamed. “Wanna help us with something?”

Will raised his eyebrows. “It’s not supernatural is it?”

Liz popped her gum at him. It was bright pink. Most likely bubblegum flavored. “We’re going shopping.”

He tried not to visibly cringe. “For clothes?”

“No,” Minnie said excitedly. She was basically jumping up and down. “My parents are taking us to pick out a puppy. Since the one I always wanted so much is… well, Liz said it got lost.”

Will and Liz exchanged a sharp look.

Unbidden, he wondered if that’s what his friends and family would say in the future. If that’s how Mike would explain what happened to the person in all his childhood pictures to his kids. If that’s how Hopper would talk about him at work. If that’s how Eleven would feel him in the void, not dead but just gone. Lost forever. Unreachable. Just like he’d always been.

“Sure!” Will chirped.

It felt like yesterday that he’d picked out Chester. Will hoped he’d see him again soon. The two of them watching over everyone else.

He pushed the thought aside and crossed the street with the girls, their hands bumping against his, Liz’s more often than necessary. The next time it happened he slid his hand into theirs. They had just made it to the other side of the sidewalk when someone called his name. Will’s first instinct was to put his head down and continue on in case it was Troy or James. But the sound of the voice exclaiming soothed his nerves.

“Hey asshole!” Max shouted. She was skateboarding down the crosswalk, staring at him judgmentally. “I’ve been yelling at you for the past five minutes.”

Liz blinked. “Do you know her?”

Max wrinkled her nose. “Isn’t he a little old for you?”

“I’ll meet you at the car,” Will responded, ushering Liz and Minnie towards where Jonathan was idling. When Max wasn’t looking Minnie shot him a thumbs up, wiggling her eyebrows. Strangely reminiscent of Lucas.

“Can we talk?” Max prompted. She stepped off her skateboard and kicked it up into her hand. “I promise I’m not gonna break down into tears and get snot all over you.”

Will never knew how to respond to her. “Thanks.”

She grabbed his wrist and guided him over to the tree in the corner of the parking lot, stomping through the thick grass. The smell of the sun burnt tar was stronger over there, invading his senses. It was heavy. Made only slightly better by the aroma of pine and flowers. He settled in, dropping to the ground and sitting criss-cross applesauce. She followed his lead. But placed herself next to him instead of in the front, close enough to brush knees. He figured that whatever she had to say she didn’t feel comfortable enough to do facing him. So he stayed oblivious and let his gaze wander up the tree. Observing the way the light filtered through the greenery.

“I guess I just wanted to say sorry,” Max hedged. She was twirling the frayed ends of her shorts around two of her fingers. Circling them around and then spreading her middle and index fingers and pulling the strands apart. “I know it’s sorta weird because I haven’t done anything to you worth apologizing for. But I feel like I have.”

He turned to her, expectant. “What?”

She shifted, stretching out her legs and accidentally knocking the toe of her shoe into a pine cone, sending it flying across the lawn. They watched it go. “It’s just… I think I never really made an attempt to actually be friends with you. At first I was so preoccupied with Dustin and Lucas. And then the concept of all this existing. But I somehow managed to become friends with everyone throughout that. Even El. But never you.”

Will touched gentle fingers to her wrist. He didn’t realize she had been feeling bad about this. It was his fault as much as hers. “Hey, it’s okay.”

“No it’s not,” Max denied. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “At first I think I just kind of assumed that we’d eventually fall into the meld. But when I first joined the group you were always so distant and now I know why. But sometimes it felt like you were the reason Mike wouldn't let me in.” She held up a hand before he could confirm or deny. “Not like I thought you were intentionally telling him to or anything. It just sort of felt like Mike was keeping you safe from me. Made me feel like… like Billy. Like everyone around me could tell there was something bad inside me. Worse than what was in him.”

The moment was so delicate that he didn’t speak. All his friends would get like this from time to time. It was Will’s job to listen. Not fix or reassure. Just be there.

Who was going to do that when he was gone.

He shook his head.

“And afterwards I was… I don’t know. Intimidated by you?” She shrugged. “You and El seemed like these insane, magical people and next to you guys I just felt ordinary.” Max bit her lip, hesitating. “In my mind I think I had already written you off as like… Mike’s or something.”

Will jolted. “Mike’s?”

Max sent him a look. “Well yeah? He is literally obsessed with you and El. Always has been.”

His face was hot. “Oh?”

She laughed at him. “It feels like an excuse now. But back when things were still rough between us it seemed like there was this barrier between what I could have and what I could know and what I wasn’t allowed. It felt like you were always part of the latter.” She paused, a flush creeping up her cheeks. “And then I became friends with Jane. And I realized that meant you were available too. But this summer… I found out some things about myself. And looking at you and Mike… just reminded me of what I was trying to forget.”

Will had no clue what she was implying. She was staring at him like her words were supposed to mean something but he didn’t know what. “What do you mean by finding out some things about yourself?”

Max groaned and stuffed her face in her hands. The tips of her ears were burning red. “Come on, William. Don’t make me say it out loud.”

“Say what?” Will asked. Why was she acting like this? What had he missed? And what did Mike have to do with it? Suddenly it came to him. He gasped. “You liked Mike?”

Max started to nod and then stopped. Her head shot up and her face twisted in disgust. “What do you mean I liked Mike?”

“Isn’t that what you were trying to tell me?” Will guessed, stomach rolling oddly.

“Uh no?” She wretched.

He blinked at her. “I thought—“

Max sighed, glancing around nervously. “I can’t believe I thought you were the smart one.” She leaned in closer, eyes wide enough that he could see himself reflected in them. He was mirroring her expression. “I didn’t like Mike… it was someone else I was spending time with.”

Will was lost. “Lucas?”

She took a shaky breath. “No… I mean yes. But not him. Actually… not any of you boys.”

“But other than us the only other one you—“ Will forcibly cut himself off. It couldn’t be. He glanced over at her and found her staring back at him, terrified. His voice dropped significantly. “El?”

Max swallowed. “Yeah.”

“But she’s—“ Will didn’t finish the sentence.

“Yeah,” Max said again.

Will leaned back, stunned. Completely blown away. If it weren’t for the genuine fear in her eyes he would’ve deemed the whole thing as a prank. An opportunity to out him and embarrass him. But it wasn’t. And she would never. In fact, it seemed like Will had more of an emotional impact on her than she did on him in this conversation.

“Is that… alright?” She whispered, voice cracking.

Immediately, he lunged and brought her into a hug. She tensed up before realizing what he was doing and softly brought her arms up around his back. She was trembling against him, breaths coming out in short pants against his neck.

“It’s more than alright,” Will praised.

“You scared me for a second there,” Max rushed. She squeezed his bicep and he released her. Then they just sat and peered at each other. “Uh thanks, though.”

He nodded. Throat dry.

Wait.

He squinted. “What does that have to do with you being around me and Mike?”

Max chewed on the inside of her cheek. “I’m not sure if I should say. I mean, are you sure you’re cool with this? Like theoretically what if a guy had a crush on you? Would that change your opinion?”

How ironic. The first and only person to not straight up assume he was gay and she herself was into girls.

Will shrugged. “No?”

She brought her knees up to her chest and placed her arms around them, clasping onto her wrists to keep them together. “I guess it was just hard to watch sometimes. Knowing he had everything I wanted. And still seeing him want for something… someone else.” She bit at the red scrunchie on her wrist, wetting the corners of it. “It made me so angry. But there was nothing I could do about it. I have Lucas and I love him. More than I should. But seeing him treat her like that and then… the way she looked at him, Will. I mean, God. Meanwhile he was just—“

“Just?” Will echoed, unsure.

He was having deja vu to what Mike had been trying to tell him the other night in his room. The way his eyes wouldn’t settle on one spot until they did. Fixed on him. How he spoke so quietly and gently. Like he was afraid Will would hear what he wanted to say and take off. Never to be seen again.

“He was looking at you,” Max finally said. She yanked a hand through her hair, pulling the sides out of her ponytail. “The way El wanted him to look at her.”

The way Max wanted El to look at her.

Will couldn’t breathe.

He’d chalked up the general weirdness of that night to Mike being worried about him. Any romantic intentions he might’ve shown were simply imagined. Hoped for even. But ultimately unrealistic. For years he’d cataloged the way Mike looked at him and talked to him and protected him as platonic. As a special sort of friendship. Something he was ruining by being a freak. And no one had ever dared to disagree with his notion. No one ever mentioned it. Or thought it odd. So it must’ve been all one big misunderstanding. And Will was the strange one. But here was Max. Saying that she’d noticed it too. And clocked it hard enough to say it like it was the truth. Backed up by evidence and proof. It was real.

“Will?” Max called, in the tone of someone who had been repeating the same thing over and over for quite some time. “You there?”

He licked his lips. “Just Mike?”

She frowned. “Huh?”

“You didn’t notice anyone else?” Will prodded.

“What are you—“ Max visibly backtracked.

He stared at her, palms sweating. “What if it wasn’t just Mike who was looking. Would that be alright?”

“Theoretically?” Max asked.

Will tilted his head. “It hasn’t been theoretical since I was five and realized why I liked holding hands with him more than I liked it with anyone else.”

Her jaw dropped. “Seriously?”

He nodded. Stupidly anxious. “Pretty much, yeah.”

It was her turn to tackle him in an embrace. Almost bowling him over. She pounded him on the back like he’d seen the basketball players do to each other. As if she was congratulating him.

“I can’t believe it!” Max laughed. “Who knew!”

Will chuckled. “Apparently most of the school.”

She knocked her head into his. “This is amazing. I mean, not the part about you liking Wheeler. But just you.”

“Me?” He asked, breathless.

“And here I thought we didn’t have anything in common,” Max complained. Letting go of him and flopping onto her back dramatically. “We could’ve been talking about this the whole time! This is great! Now we can totally freak everyone out. We should have a code name for this!”

She kept talking and Will kept on smiling at her. A weight that he hadn’t even realized was there was suddenly lifted off his shoulders. He could finally breathe easy.

Was this what everyone else felt like?

This excitement to talk about crushes and love?

The freedom to be yourself?

Jonathan pressed down on the horn hard enough to startle the kids walking down the street. A few looked over and flipped him off, shouting insults. In the passenger seat, Liz was gesturing happily at Jonathan, who leaned back in his chair and swung his arms wide. She beamed and slammed down on the horn.

“Fuck off!” Someone hollered.

In the back, hidden from view, Minnie rolled down the window and stuck her hand out, middle finger up.

Will rolled his eyes but the grin didn’t fade.

“Jonathan probably thinks I was like,” Max pulled a face. “Confessing my undying love for you or something.”

“Well with the way you kept hugging me…” Will trailed off, rolling to the side when she swatted at him. He let the momentum carry him up. He wiped his hands on his jeans and helped pull her off the ground.

She rubbed at her neck sheepishly. “Sorry to keep everyone waiting. I just wanted the chance to talk to you before it’s too late. I’m kind of an expert on that.”

Will stared at her. Remembering the lost look on her face that day at the library. Seemingly so desperate for conversation. For him to understand her. Which he did, more than each of them ever thought he would. And he saw it even now. The loneliness.

“Hey?” He said.

“Yeah?” She asked.

He tightened the straps of his backpack. “Do you maybe wanna come with us and hangout for a bit?”

Max folded her arms, defensive. “Why?”

“I figured we could come up with a code,” Will offered. “You were right. It would drive them up the wall.”

Max brightened. “It would be funny.”

Will raised his eyebrows, imploringly. Then without waiting for a response he turned on his heel and stalked off. A few moments later her footfalls joined his. He didn’t have to look at her to know that both of them were hiding their grins.

“Are you sure you got room for one more?” She asked.

“Always.” Will pledged.

It was only after that he’d realized that Billy had been smiling at her the entire time. Odd how he hadn’t even registered him standing there. Almost like he’d forgotten. As if he couldn’t see him anymore.

***

Nancy opened the door with a hesitant expression on her face. When she saw Will it rapidly morphed into worry. She nudged the door with her hip and stepped further outside, bright pink socks landing on the gray tinged cement.

“Will,” she greeted.

He smiled. “Uh hey!”

She looked over to where Jonathan was parked in the driveway, stopped behind Ted’s car. She held up a hand and he nodded back at her, tapping his fingers restlessly on the steering wheel. Nancy stared at him for a long drawn out moment, eyes contemplative. Then she turned back to Will, lips pursed.

“Are you here for Mike?” She asked, raising her eyebrows. “He didn’t mention—“

Will cut in. “Actually. I’m here for you.”

She paused. Visibly recalculating. “Oh?”

He rocked back on his heels, hands brushing up against the paper in the pocket of his hoodie. He wet his lips and glanced at Barb out of the corner of his eye. She was standing just to the left of him, unnaturally still, gaze glued to Nancy. It was a lot harder to see her these days. Where before the ghosts had been an undeniable presence, now Will had to focus his eyes to fully see them. It helped even less that more often than not they seemed to be flickering in and out, coming back more and more quiet and withdrawn each time. He’d asked Bob once where they went when they weren’t with him but he said he didn’t know the answer. But Will had the feeling that he did. They just wouldn’t tell him.

“It’s—“ Will took a deep breath. “I have something for you. From—well.” He pulled it out of his pocket, holding it gingerly. Nancy’s name stood out in bright, loopy handwriting, slightly smeared towards the end of it from where his hand had brushed over the envelope. He held it out to her. “There’s a letter inside.”

She took it, red fingernails scraping against the paper. “What’s this for?”

He swallowed. “I kind of got the idea from Max, I guess. She was saying how she wished she could just talk to Billy one more time. To apologize or just have some closure? I’m not sure. But uh, Billy had me write one for her and I did one from Bob for my mom.”

Nancy clutched the letter to her chest, mouth parted. “It’s from Barb?”

Will nodded. “I hope it’s okay that I wrote it for her. I know that it’s really private.” He watched in surprise as she tore the envelope open and slid the letter out, thumbing through the pages with a reverent look on her face. “If you want to talk to her about it later, you can use Mike’s walkie-talkie and I can put some headphones in, if you’d like?”

Nancy blinked hard. “Yeah.”

“Yeah?” Will asked.

She cleared her throat, wiping a stray tear from off of her face. Her smile was liquid but no less real. “I don’t know what to say. This is—it’s more than I could’ve ever hoped for. Being able to… talk to her again.”

Barb turned away, rubbing at her eyes. He would never tell Nancy, but Barb had been the hardest one to convince to do this. She’d been stuck in between worlds the longest. Had seen the grief process all the way through with Nancy. Had seen when she’d finally started to move on and get better. The things that Barb had gone through were unimaginable to Will. He had some practice with trying to communicate with someone that couldn’t hear him. But his family had never given up on him. Not even when he deserved it.

Will was a little anxious himself. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d said that the letter was private. There were things in there that Will didn’t think anybody had ever known. Unlike Billy’s it wasn’t so much a remorseful or guilt heavy letter. It was bitter and hurt and kind of angry. And it scared Will. To read the jealousy and the longing and realize that it matched his own in so many ways.

He didn’t know how Nancy was going to take it. There was a huge chance that she wouldn’t even call tonight. Though he hoped she did. If not for Barb’s sake then for hers.

“Yeah,” Will repeated.

Nancy carefully put the letter back in the envelope, eyes tracing the words hungrily. “Is she here with you?”

Will tipped his head towards where she was standing. Nancy did a full body turn, trembling in the summer heat, pulse beating so hard he could see it throb in her throat. Barb returned the look evenly, hands clasped together like she was holding herself back from jumping forward and shouting; “I’m right here!”

“Thank you,” Nancy said. She bowed her head. “And I’m sorry for not looking harder. I should’ve been there with you that night.”

Will had already prepared himself to be the translator but Barb shook her head at him, either unable or unwilling to speak. She squared her shoulders and marched off the porch, heading towards the car where Heather was leaning up against the side of it, staring at the sky.

“It’s okay,” Will told her instead.

Nancy wrapped her arms around herself. “Is it?”

Will internally cringed, knowing how incriminating the beginning of Barb’s letter was, how accusing it sounded. But in the end, Will knew that Barb had never blamed her, not really. What was past was past. Now all she wanted was for Nancy to truly live her life without a shadow lingering over her.

“You’ll have to read to find out,” Will answered cryptically. Though he sent her a reassuring smile.

She reached out and squeezed his hand. He looked up at her, startled. “I mean it, Will. Thank you.”

He shrugged, embarrassed. No matter how many times he’d had the same conversation it still felt like he was reaching down his throat and ripping the branches off of his heart, tossing them out bloody and ruined and letting them plop on the ground at their feet.

Inside the house, Mike and Holly were racing down the stairs, laughing about something. Holly hit the bottom first, gracelessly tumbling onto the carpet in the living room, sprawling out across a fallen pillow. Mike followed soon after, socked feet sending him sliding across the floor towards the kitchen. He could hear Mrs. Wheeler yelling down at them, voice loud but soft.

Will cracked a grin.

“Seriously?” Nancy demanded. She put her hands on her hips. “One of these days you two are going to split your heads open.”

Mike rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to respond but stopped short when he saw Will standing on the porch. He brightened immediately, scrambling to a stop, bracing his hands against the wall. Unperturbed, Holly sprang up and chucked a pillow at him.

“Holly!” Mike hissed, adjusting his hair.

Nancy sighed and kicked off from where she was standing, making her way past him, strutting down the driveway towards Jonathan. Mike popped up to take her place instantly, grinning wildly.

“Hey!” Mike said.

“Hi?” Will greeted, amused.

Mike’s cheeks and nose were bright red and he was panting quietly, like he’d just run a mile. His shirt was ruffled, the collar unfolded around one side. Along with fresh carpet burns on his palms. His hair was in disarray, curls falling flat down against his scalp, hanging down over his dark eyes. Somehow he still managed to take Will’s breath away.

“Are you here for me?” Mike asked. He said it like he already knew the answer. Smug and proud.

Will folded his arms. “For your sister, actually.”

“What?” Mike froze, peering at him suspiciously. In the background Holly was lying on her stomach, blonde ringlets matted to one side of her face, chin in her hand as she observed the two of them. “Why? Is everything okay? You aren’t feeling sick again are you?”

Will rolled his eyes. “I was just delivering something.”

Mike seemed unimpressed. “Oh?”

“And I’m done now,” Will announced.

Mike sighed. “You aren’t gonna tell me?”

Will pretended to think it over. “Does it involve you?”

“How am I supposed to know!” Mike argued.

“Then no,” Will decided.

Mike pouted for a moment before forgetting about it. He leaned up against the doorway, hand twisting the doorknob restlessly. He regarded Will seriously, eyes appraising. “You aren’t sick, right?”

The sickness came in starts and stops. It was a continuous cycle brought on by the closing of the gates. But it was pretty unpredictable. Of course, he could always tell when Eleven or the lab was starting on one because he’d get a killer headache and a strong nose bleed. But once they’d stopped for the day, it was almost like nothing had happened. The rest of it seemed to have no reliable pattern. Though it was getting harder to ignore. As time went on the sickness lasted longer with more lingering side effects. It was only the tail end of the first week and there were times where he was already finding it difficult to get out of bed. Eventually he’d have to be hospitalized.

“Not today,” Will said.

Mike’s shoulders released their tension. “That’s good. So you’re feeling okay today? No dizziness or drowsiness or anything?”

Will shook his head. “None.”

Mike bit his lip. “So, hypothetically if I said I wanted to take you somewhere you’d be up for it?”

“Hypothetically?” Will teased. “I’d say sure.”

“Really?” Mike was looking at him like if he blinked he’d run down the driveway and disappear into thin air. Will nodded, smiling. “Okay. Cool. Let me just go get my keys! I’ll be right back!”

***

Will stopped at the edge of the cliff, staring down at the water beneath him. It was getting near the end of the day, sun reflecting against the surface of the small waves rippling across the lake. The sunset was a warm honey color against the dark navy of the sky, combining in the middle to create a gentle pink. Standing all the way out at the quarry, Will felt like he was in another world.

Mike came to a stop next to him, hovering slightly behind him but still close enough to bump their shoulders. When Will turned to look at him he could see the sun bouncing off the depths of his brown eyes, turning the flecks golden, framing his irises. Mike caught his gaze and smiled, tilting his head inquisitively.

Will glanced away, cheeks flushing. He toed at a rock and flicked it off the edge, sending it tumbling down towards the ground. Both of them watched it go with wide, surprised eyes. It seemed to fall forever before hitting the water with a loud splash.

“I never realized how far down that goes,” Will said. He peered further over to get a better look and Mike’s hand snagged the back of his shirt.

His eyes were glued to the crumbling dirt by their feet. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to grab you. I just… this place… I don’t want you to accidentally fall off and have Hopper arrest me for murder.”

Will slid backwards a few steps. Mike didn’t let go. He was transfixed, staring at the sharp edge of the cliff. There was sweat pooling around his hairline, shimmering in the dying light. Every so often his fingers would clench around the fabric, pulling it taut. Will chose not to mention it. He wasn’t sure Mike was even aware that he was doing it.

“What are we doing here, Mike?” Will asked gently. They’d spent most of the drive in silence, a thick tension permeating the car. It felt like they were stumbling towards something important.

Mike bit his lip, tucking one hand inside his pocket. Will could see his fingers curling through the denim. He swallowed. “What? I have to have a reason to hang out with my best friend now?”

Will raised his eyebrows.

Mike huffed. “Okay yeah. I guess… I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Doing this, I mean. Bringing you here.” He paused, rubbing at the back of his neck. Upon seeing Will’s worried look, he continued. “Not for anything bad. I just wanted it to be private. For us to be alone.”

Will’s pulse tripped over itself. “Why?”

“There’s just always these interruptions,” Mike explained. “It’s like everytime I try to talk to you the world ends, y’know. There’s been so many times this past year where I couldn’t spit out what I wanted to say fast enough and then something happens and I never get the chance to.”

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Mike. If this is about that day in the garage—“

“No!” Mike denied. Then pulled a face and backtracked. “Well it is. Kind of.”

Will shook his head. “It’s okay. I’m over it.”

Mike clenched his jaw. “You’re over it? What—what exactly are you over? The fight? Or… me?”

He sucked in a breath. Will’s eyes were practically bugging out of his head. “What does that mean? Over you? How am I supposed to be over you?”

Mike flicked his eyes up to meet his. “Well, I don’t know. Are you?”

Will threw his hands up in the air. “Is this what you brought me out here to talk about?”

He thought back to what Max had said the other day. How the entire time Will had been watching him and El that Mike had been looking right back. He’d let himself believe it for a day or so, a little personal bubble of happiness and satisfaction that was inevitably going to pop. Maybe she had been wrong. Or maybe Mike had been staring at him, trying to figure out how to let him down easy. Will wrapped his arms around his stomach, hunching his shoulders. Mike was probably too embarrassed to do this in public. Too disgusted by the thought of Will liking him to do it in front of the people he cared about.

Mike closed his eyes. “Look, I didn’t mean it like that. I would never… I don’t think that you… I just wanted to make sure we were still friends.”

Will shifted uncomfortably. “Didn’t we already talk about this? Mike, you’re always going to be my best friend. Nothing you do can ever change that, okay? If I wanted to… get over you, don’t you think I would have already?”

Mike put his face in his hands. He sounded defeated. “Always your best friend?”

Will was getting slightly offended. Not to mention confused. What was all this back and forth about? “Is that such a bad thing? I thought that was what you wanted?”

“It is!” Mike shouted. His voice echoed.

“Then why are you acting so weird about it?” Will demanded, raising his voice as well.

“Because!” Mike answered.

Will was going to tear his hair out. “What is actually wrong with you? You can call me your best friend but I can’t call you mine? That literally makes no sense!”

Mike’s eyes were wild. “Maybe that’s not what I want!”

“How the hell am I supposed to know what you want?” Will shot back. He spun around and started marching away from him. “You’re so goddamn confusing. Always bouncing from one thing to the next.”

Mike was right at his heels. “What is that supposed to mean? From one thing to the next?”

Will laughed, bitter. “It means that you have a stupid white knight complex. You’re so obsessed with being needed that you gravitate towards whoever needs your help the most!”

“Oh, is that what you think?” Mike scoffed. “I didn’t see you complaining when I was helping you. Remind me again which one of us sat by your bedside when you couldn’t even remember your own goddamn name? Was it Lucas? Dustin maybe?”

Will rolled his eyes. “That’s so typical.”

Mike snapped his fingers. “That’s right. It was me! Spare me the thanks. I never got one anyway.”

“When did I have the opportunity to thank you?” Will spat, trudging towards the car. He stepped over a log angrily. “You were too busy running around after my sister!”

“Here we go again,” Mike muttered. He quickened his pace, jumping in front of Will and putting his hands out. “You’re still hung up on this?”

Will ground his teeth together and pushed Mike aside. He couldn’t bare to look at him right now. Not with jealousy written all over his face, plain as day. He knew it was childish, fighting over him like a toy. He might’ve had him first but it didn’t mean he got to keep him. Regardless, he couldn’t help his feelings. No matter how many times he tried to choke them down and drown them out.

“Leave it alone,” Will snapped. He needed to get away from him. Everything he said was ripping a hole right down the middle of his chest. He was too exposed out here. Too vulnerable with someone he hadn’t been in a long time.

Mike made a noise in the back of his throat. “No, actually I think we should talk about this. About your insane jealousy over El. About how you treated her while we were dating. Like you had any right to—“

Will came to an abrupt stop. He whipped around. “Excuse me?”

“I’m just telling it like I see it,” Mike said. He stepped closer, mouth pressed into a thin line. “You were jealous of her. Admit it.”

Will wrinkled his nose. “What’s there to be jealous of? How you lied to her over and over again? Or how you treated her like a pet?” He leaned forward, poking him hard in the chest. “You really think I wanted any of that? No fucking thanks. She can keep it.”

Mike’s mouth twisted. “Well you don’t have to worry about that anymore. We’re over. She ended it. Maybe now you can stand to look me in the eyes again.”

Will didn’t know what expression he was making. “Wow. So what? Now that she’s unavailable you’re suddenly eager to be in my life? I guess you won’t have to worry about that for long. In two more weeks you can go back to her!”

Mike blanched, blood draining from his face. He made an aborted move towards him, hands hovering in the air. “That’s—Will.”

Will’s chest was heaving. He pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes, watching little fireworks of color burst under his eyelids. He couldn’t believe he had just said that.

“I’m sorry,” Will said desperately.

“Do you really think that?” Mike croaked. “That I’ll just move on after you’re gone? Continue with my life like nothing ever happened? Like a piece of my fucking soul isn’t gone?”

Will shuddered. “No. I didn’t—“

Mike’s hands encircled his wrists and slowly tugged them back down to his sides. His eyes were bright red, livid with veins and water. He gaped at him for a long moment, fingers flexing against the prominent bone at his wrists. He let out a harsh breath and knocked his forehead against Will’s.

“I’m sorry,” Will repeated. And he meant it. He didn’t know what had come over him. He’d been doing so good at keeping his darker emotions locked inside his chest. Never letting the anger or the fear or the relief out for the world to see. But now Mike had. And he’d seen the worst one. The blame. The way he felt like no one had done enough. Had just taken it laying down and rolled over, given up.

It wasn’t true.

And he hated himself for even thinking it.

“Me too,” Mike whispered. He brushed a stray tear off of Will’s cheek. “This wasn’t what I had in mind when I brought you out here. I wanted… It sounds stupid now. But I wanted to make you happy.”

Will blushed. “You don’t have to drag me all the way out here to do that. You always make me happy.”

“Even in my dirty basement?” Mike asked.

He smiled. “That’s where you make me the happiest.”

Mike swallowed, pulling away. But he didn’t move back too far. Just enough to search his eyes. “If you’d let me, I’d like to start over.”

“Yeah,” Will answered.

“Yeah?” Mike confirmed.

“Do you want me to go get in the car and then walk all the way back here?” Will asked jokingly.

Mike thought it over and then grabbed his hand, guiding him back over the fallen log and straight through the trees. The light of the sun filtered in through the middle of the clearing, casting pink shadows along the mossy ground. As they walked along the trail, Will studied Mike’s profile. Admiring the strong set to his jaw and the way his shoulders were starting to broaden. He’d been straightening his hair lately, but out in all the humidity his curls were starting to spring up, falling in his eyes and snaking around his ears. He really was beautiful. A mix of a new grown up version to his friend along with the faded edges of baby fat around his cheeks and a strange youthfulness in the way he moved. Pretty soon he’d be unrecognizable to the Mike he had met on the swings.

It sobered Will to think they’d never see each other grow up. That Will would always be stuck with his small artist hands and an awkward fumbling body.

Mike led them to a gurgling stream of water and they sat down on a rock next to it. The rock could barely hold both of their weight at once, forcing them both to the middle, feet planted strong against the dirt to keep it from falling over. Mike’s thigh was warm against his.

“Is this okay?” Mike questioned. Oddly nervous.

Will nodded, throat tight. The atmosphere was charged. Too charged for him to disrupt the moment.

Mike cleared his throat, sliding a folded up paper out of his pocket, carefully unwrapping it and smoothing it out with his hands. It was printer paper with lime green tape stuck around the border of it. As Will leaned closer he could see different handwriting written in bright colored markers. At the top the title was spelled out in bold black sharpie. He gasped when he recognized his name, reaching out to trace the letters. It read: Will Byers End Of The World Bucket-List.

“Is this for me?” Will hedged.

“For the record,” Mike began. He handed the paper over to him, fingers brushing as they exchanged it. “This was totally my idea.”

Will smiled as he looked it over. “Why are some things crossed out?”

Mike looked away, coughing into his fist. “Uh yeah. El had a hard time spelling.”

It didn’t look like El’s handwriting underneath. “Uh huh.”

Will paused at one of the items on the list. “Get my drivers license? Mike, how exactly are you guys planning on completing all of this?”

Mike ran a hand through his hair. “Well, I mean. We’ll have to take some creative liberty with a few. For example; number one and twenty four. But don’t worry. We’ve got this all worked out.”

“And the road trip to New York?” Will asked.

Mike leaned back against the rock. He peered at Will from underneath his eyelashes. “Ask me what I’m doing next week.”

Will cocked his head. “Hey Mike?”

“Yeah?” His lips twitched.

“What are you doing next week?” Will prompted.

“I’m taking you to New York,” Mike said. As if it wasn’t completely out of the blue. Like they’d discussed it before. “The entire Party’s going. Plus Steve but someone’s got to drive us.”

Will parted his mouth. “But how?”

“I talked to your mom about it last week,” Mike told him. He seemed very smug. “She thought it was a good idea.”

Will was in shock. “She’s seriously letting you take me to New York for a whole week?”

Mike cracked a grin. “A whole week.”

Will laughed. “This is crazy!”

He went back to reading over the list. Chuckling as he read the little comments his friends had left in the margins. Even without the sparkly glitter pen it was easy to tell what suggestions had come from El.

“This is amazing,” Will breathed. He chanced a glance to his left, surprised to see Mike gazing at him fondly. “But I don’t think we’re going to be able to finish the whole list.”

“What?” Mike blurted, indignant. “Of course we are.”

Will rolled his eyes. “I think you guys got a little ahead of yourselves. I only have two weeks left.”

“And?” Mike asked, defensively. “Plenty of time to have an awesome campaign and a waffle eating contest. We can even do both at the same time.”

“Come on,” Will said. He read aloud from the list. “Having your first kiss, going on a date, going to prom? Who am I going to find to do these with me in the span of two weeks?”

Mike went quiet, side eyeing Will. “Well, I don’t know. We all pretty much had someone in mind for you. And you won’t even have to go looking too hard.”

Had someone in mind for him?

“Please tell me it’s not Max,” Will said.

Mike gave him a startled look. “In what world would I ever let you kiss Max Mayfield?”

Will raised his eyebrows. “Yeah? What other options are there? Unless you know someone that I don’t.”

Mike coughed again, cheeks flushing. “Isn’t there anyone else you can think of that would want to do those things with you?”

Will’s scowl deepened. “Jennifer Hayes?”

Mike looked at him, eyes boring into his. His voice was deadly soft when he spoke. “Anyone else?”

He swallowed, hands going clammy around the paper. “No?”

“I’ll give you a hint,” Mike said. He slid closer, turning his body towards him, propping one arm behind Will’s back, bringing them face to face. The other hand crept up to Will’s neck, stroking the skin above his collarbone. “He’s really not that hard to find. He’s known you since you were five. He’s been acting really stupid lately.” Mike tilted Will’s head to the side and his eyes went half lidded. “Let’s see, what else? He’s wearing a blue shirt. He’s irrecoverably in love with you. And he’s about to kiss you.”

Will released a trembling breath. Mike’s hand pressed him closer and he went sliding down the rock, knees colliding with Mike’s, mouth inches away from his. His whole body felt like it was on fire, like he’d been doused in warm water. Unthinkingly, he licked his lips. They were tingling.

“Will?” Mike rasped.

Will grasped for words but couldn’t manage any. “Yeah?”

“Can I kiss you?” He asked sweetly. His index finger was tapping restlessly behind Will’s ear, giving away his nerves. “Please? Will you let me be your first?”

Will reached up and held his wrist. “This isn’t just for some stupid bucket list, right? Cause I don’t think… I could recover from that if it was.”

Mike bumped their noses together. He was so close and so intent on him. It was making Will’s nervous system go haywire. His body couldn’t decide if it wanted to move forward or backwards, just like he always had.

“It’s real,” Mike promised. He blinked slowly. “It’s all yours if you want it to be.”

Will closed his eyes, resisting the urge to hide his face in Mike’s neck. “I’ve never done this before.”

Mike brought him impossibly closer. They were breathing the same air. “I can show you.”

Will crossed the distance and pressed his mouth against Mike’s, sliding their lips together. He couldn’t see Mike’s face but he felt him stiffen for a second and then surge further into him, moving his mouth against his, softly like he was afraid to spook him. He kissed just like Will always imagined he would. Gentle and reverent like he was reassuring him that he’d always take care of him. But it was a thousand times better than his silly hopeless daydreams. He’d always assumed that afterwards Mike would pull away and never speak to him again. Instead, Mike separated their mouths with a wet noise and then went in again, less timid and unsure then he’d been the first time. Scraping his teeth against the dry skin on Will’s lips and urging his mouth open.

Will let his hands fall onto his shoulders, digging into his skin, holding on for the ride. Once he’d gotten over the initial shock he started to hesitantly reciprocate, letting himself sink into the embrace. Mike’s lips were chapped and tasted faintly of coconut lip balm. The inside of his mouth was minty, like he’d been gnawing on gum before Will had shown up. It was a weird combination but it worked. But he probably could have tasted like garlic and onions and Will still would’ve thought that kissing him was the best thing he’d ever done.

Finally, he pulled away. The dry heat of the night brushing against his swollen mouth. Will inhaled a breeze of wind, opening his eyes and letting his senses reorient themselves with everything else besides Mike. He blinked the haziness away and made unwavering eye contact with Mike, who was watching him like he never wanted to look away. Eyes dark and heavy. Will reached up and wiped his mouth. The other thing he’d been right about was how intense of a kisser Mike was. But that was Mike. He’d always been strangely intense. Especially when it came to Will.

“Was that okay?” Mike asked.

Will nodded. “Um yeah.”

Not like he had anything else to compare it to. But it had been mind blowing all the same. A little awkward and fumbling but still sweet and wonderful.

“Would you want to do that again?” Mike asked.

Will cleared his throat. “Like a date?”

Mike smiled. “Like a date and a road trip and I think the list mentioned something about prom.”

Will grinned so big it hurt his cheeks. “You know we can’t actually go to prom together.”

“Why not?” Mike said. “Unless you’re too embarrassed to be seen with me and my amazing dance moves.”

Will pushed him off the rock. “I think most dancers have a little more elegance and grace than you do.”

“I guess you’ll have to settle for me then,” Mike said. He had grass stains on the knees of his jeans and his shoes were muddy. “But since you’re supposedly such a great dancer, maybe you can teach me.”

“Really?” Will raised his eyebrows.

Mike stood up, shrugging. “That’s how we work, right? Teaching each other things. Helping each other out. Doing whatever we need to. No matter how crazy.”

They were finally on the same page again.

Will folded up the paper and put it in his pocket. When he stood up he felt lighter than he had in a long time. Probably since before he’d been taken and his life had been turned upside down. “Crazy together.”

***

Will pulled back the curtain and crawled into Castle Byers. It was bigger than it had been the last time. There were pictures hung on every corner of the wall. Photos of him with his friends in New York, each of them huddled together to smile for the camera, Mike’s arms wrapped around Will’s shoulders. Max behind them, eyebrows downturned as she glowered at the back of Mike’s head. It was unseen, but Mike had a hand crossed behind his back, middle finger up straight in the air. He’d gotten a thorough lecture from both Steve and Lucas after the fact.

Stapled to one of the sticks was his bucket list with vibrant red check marks next to the items they’d completed. Almost the entire thing had been done, minus a few things like shaving Hopper’s head and doing something illegal; which the first definitely felt like it. Those were to be saved for later. When Will had more energy and could stand to get out of the bed for more than thirty minutes at a time. Dustin had nobly promised Will that if he was unable to, he would finish the mission and bravely take one for the team. He wasn’t sure how much of that was for his benefit and how much was because Dustin wanted to pin it on Mike and watch the two of them have it out in the Byers living room again.

Will yawned and stretched out, foot bumping into something furry that yipped at him. He shot right up, surprised to see a white dog staring at him, ears perked up and tail wagging.

“Chester?” Will cried. He dove forward and wrapped his arms around him, burying his face in his mane. He smelled the same as he always had; like wet grass and lemon soap. “Hi, buddy. How have you been?”

Chester barked, licking a large stripe up his cheek. He flopped over and let Will scratch his tummy, wriggling excitedly. Will laughed when Chester’s tail smacked him in the leg, pressing a kiss onto the top of his head.

“I’m sorry it took me so long,” Will said. Chester climbed into his lap. “I’ve missed you so much.”

There was a knock on the side of the wall.

“Password?” Will called.

“Radagast,” Bob said. He poked his head in.

Will faltered when he saw him, head spinning as the world went blurry for a minute. There was something wrong. Last he’d seen him Bob had been complaining loudly at the television in his hospital room. “What are you doing here?”

Bob sat down. “I’m here for you.”

“Me?” Will echoed. “Why?”

He glanced down at Chester. “Is this the famous Chester I keep hearing about?” He waited for Will’s nod and then reached down and patted him on the head. “What a good boy!”

Will yawned again. “Is everything okay?”

Bob tilted his head, a faraway look in his eyes. “It will be eventually.”

“Where are the others?” Will asked.

Bob waved a hand. “Here and there. We’re just waiting for Barb. She’s still pretty connected to the world down there.”

Will frowned. “So everyone is gone?”

“We’re already dead,” Bob reminded him. “We just needed to sever the tether.”

Will rubbed his eyes. He could hear something making noise. It sounded like a ceiling fan. The eerie feeling was back again. He couldn’t shake the thought that he wasn’t where he was meant to be.

“Am I dead?” Will said tonelessly.

Bob smiled at him. “That is entirely up to you.”

“What do you mean?” Will demanded. There was a throbbing headache starting in the back of his occipital nerves. “What’s going on?”

If he wasn’t dead how was he here?

He knew he should be panicking but he couldn’t feel anything other than a dull calmness. Like he was rocking back and forth on a boat. He reached up to feel his heartbeat but couldn’t find it.

“You’re halfway there,” Bob said. He looked young. Younger than he’d been when Will had known him. His cheeks were filled with color. “Stopped at the crossroad between the living and the dead.”

“How is that possible?” Will asked. Chester licked his fingers, lapping at them like he could sense his worry. “I’m supposed to die.”

The sound was back. He could hear more than just a fan this time. There was a loud beeping noise in the background, like a monitor going off.

Will felt something dribble out of his right nostril. He reached up and his finger came away stained with red.

“What is this?” Will asked.

Bob regarded him. “I believe that is from Eleven.”

Will pressed down on his temples. The pain was becoming too much for him to handle. For a second he couldn’t place the name. Then a face appeared in his mind. A girl with a shaved head, wading towards him in black water, her pink dress billowing out around her.

“Mom is coming,” she said.

He blinked.

Eleven.

His sister.

How could he forget?

Bob observed him. “It will be alright.”

Another noise. The sound of alarmed voices.

He felt so sluggish.

“What do I do?” Will asked. Chester’s fur was starting to seem more coarse and firm under his hands. “How do I leave the crossroads?”

“You have to decide,” Bob told him.

Will shook his head. “Decide what?”

“If when she brings you back if you want it to work,” Bob said simply.

“Bring me back?” Will said.

Someone was pounding on his chest. He felt cold metal touch his bare skin and his body jolted upwards.

“You only needed to die,” Bob whispered. “But you didn’t need to stay dead.”

Eleven was bringing him back.

He could feel her small hands pressed against the top of his sternum, pushing her power into him.

“She’s restarting my heart,” Will announced.

Light was creeping in at the edges of his vision, eating up the walls of Castle Byers, absorbing the pictures of his friends and family. If he didn’t make his choice soon it was going to swallow him whole.

Chester whined at him.

Will wasn’t in a rush to leave. It was so peaceful here. Devoid of hurt and anger. Everything he loved was within these four tiny walls. All his memories and good deeds.

Bob gazed at him steadily.

If he went back, who knows what state his body would be in, how long he’d even manage to live for. Would he receive an extra hour to say his goodbyes?

“Will!” His mom was saying.

His fingertips were going numb.

“Are you ready to join us?” Bob said.

I can’t, he thought.

Not yet.

His chest jolted one more time.

And then he was floating away.

***

WILL BYERS END OF THE WORLD BUCKET-LIST
Made by: Mike Wheeler (Why is your name first asshole?) (Because I came up with the idea, Dustin!) (Oh I see how it is. Taking credit for everything.) (Can you two shut up?), Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Max Mayfield (I came up with the funnest things, Will.) (That is blatantly untrue.) and Eleven Hopper.

---

1. Snorkeling. (Seriously? You do realize that we live in Hawkins, Indiana right?)
2. Playing the best D&D campaign EVER!!!
3. Skinny dipping?!?
4. Trying eggs covered in maple syrup. (I swear they’re good. You just have to try them.) (I’ve just decided that I’m allergic to you, Wheeler.)
5. Finally talking to Jennifer Hayes!!! (Why did this get crossed out?) (Ask Mike.)
6. Letting us paint your nails!!!
7. Getting a hair cut?
8. Going on a date.
9. Graduating. (How do you plan on doing this?) (Steve said he had it covered, okay?)
10. Eggo eating contest!!!
11. Having your first kiss. (Smooth.)
12. Pull an all nighter.
13. Go on a road trip to New York.
14. Shave Hop’s head!!!
15. Talk to someone on an Ouija Board. (I think that’s a little insensitive Dustin.) (Well, at least we know he can probably get in contact?)
16. Punch Troy in the face. (Max.) (What it’s not like it’s gonna matter if he gets expelled!)
17. Get your drivers license. (Robin wants to do this one with him.)
18. Have a Birthday party to celebrate all the ones we’re going to miss.
19. Graffiti the bathroom stall. (Let this go, Lucas. I did it one time.) (Sorry, should I have written plagiarize an essay instead?)
20. Photoshoot!!! (Jonathan will take our pictures!!!)
21. Go to a concert.
22. Go to prom? (Was this your way of asking him? Or?) (You’re on thin ice.)
23. Dye your hair. (I’m tired of the ginger jokes guys.)
24. Run a marathon.
25. Fly on an airplane.
26. Let me teach you how to play basketball.
27. Watch all the Star Wars movies again.
28. Rebuild Castle Byers.
29. Do something illegal. (What is illegal?) (Don’t worry about it.)
30. Try and spend as much time with us as you have left.

Don’t leave me.